


Playing House

by itsactuallycorrine



Series: Playing House [1]
Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Future Fic, Kid Fic, Part Schmoop, Single Parents, mentions of past Jeff/OFC
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-10
Updated: 2017-04-10
Packaged: 2018-10-15 06:16:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 23,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10551462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsactuallycorrine/pseuds/itsactuallycorrine
Summary: Six years ago, Jeff let Annie go. She never returned to Greendale, and he moved on. Now, he's a single dad to a one-year-old and he needs her help.Annie can't help but feel there's something missing in her life. When Jeff asks her to come to Greendale, she takes the chance that she may just find the answer there.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The idea for this is based - very loosely - off the premise to the USA sitcom _Playing House_ , hence the title. 
> 
> It's been a long time since I've written for these two, but after a recent rewatch, I couldn't help myself.
> 
> Special thanks to bethanyactually for whipping this into shape! <3
> 
> Enjoy!

**_April 2021_ **

**_Indianapolis, IN_ **

 

Annie should be ecstatic.

 

The biggest case of her career so far and the dirtbag was convicted of multiple counts of murder, beyond the shadow of a doubt in the minds of twelve of his peers, based on damning physical evidence. Physical evidence  _ she _ collected, processed, and tied back to him.

 

She should be elated, skipping, and calling everyone she knows. Maybe popping champagne with the rest of the evidence team back at the FBI Field Office.

 

Instead, she shuffles to her car in the courthouse parking lot, wincing at the bright sunlight and feeling hollow.

 

Why doesn’t this feel like she expected? Where’s the sense of achievement? The satisfaction? The validation that all her life choices—even the bad ones—led her to this moment? 

 

She thinks about going back to the office and celebrating. It might lift her spirits for a while, their team sitting around and basking in the glory of another case closed, patting each other on the back. She doesn't really consider her team friends, merely coworkers. She’d celebrated with them before, though, and she could do it again. 

 

And then it would end, and she’d go home to her apartment. Alone. She’d text all her Greendale friends about it, and they’d be happy for her, but it wasn’t the same as if they were here with her. Six years later and she still hasn’t been able to replace or shake the messy-but-lovable found family she’d left behind.

 

With a sigh, she unlocks her car while slipping her phone out of her pocket and turning it on. Annie strips the black wool blazer off and throws it across the passenger seat with a smirk when she thinks about how dismayed Jeff would be to see her treat such an expensive article of clothing so casually. 

 

Her phone lights up with notification after notification and she raises a brow. Think of the devil and he shall text, apparently. Then she winces as she realizes she’d been throwing a mini pity party over, what, her success not feeling good enough? And all while Jeff was dealing with something much harder.

 

_ Your feelings are valid, too _ , she hears in a voice that sounds suspiciously like Britta, but she rolls her eyes and scrolls through the missed texts, seeing he’d left a voicemail as well.

 

**_Jeff_ ** _ : i just want to reiterate that i’m desperate _

**_Jeff:_ ** _ so please don’t judge my incoherency in that voicemail _

**_Jeff:_ ** _ you know what? this was dumb. nevermind. ignore the vm if you haven’t listened to it yet _

**_Jeff:_ ** _ i really hope you haven’t listened to it yet and this sustained silence isn’t your answer _

**_Jeff:_ ** _ look i’m sorry _

**_Jeff:_ ** _ i didn’t mean to put you on the spot. i know it’s a lot to ask _

**_Jeff:_ ** _ … Frankie just reminded me you’re in court today, so… good luck! and don’t judge my frantic texts too harshly either _

 

Curiosity piqued, Annie pulls up her voicemail. “Annie, it’s Jeff. I, uh, god, I hate to do this. You know that when something is important, I just… I don’t want to admit I need help. That being said,” he tacks on with a wry laugh, “remember a few months ago when you called and told me if I needed anything just to ask? This is me, asking. 

 

“Uh, Frankie had something come up and she’s going to be gone for a few weeks. And with her goes Greendale’s faculty daycare. I just… I seriously considered setting up a playpen in the corner of my classroom for the last few weeks of the semester, but well… People are already starting to call him  _ Baby Greendale _ .” He scoffs, while Annie presses a smile into her fingertips. “My son! Baby Greendale?! I don’t think so. So I think some time away from this school would be good for him. Is there any way—ugh, I hate to ask this so much, but you’re the only one I trust outside of Frankie. Maybe Shirley, but she has too much going on already. Did she tell you she’s taking Jordan on tours of colleges already? I couldn’t believe it. 

 

“Anyway, is there any way you could, I don’t know, take some time off and come help me out?” He clears his throat and his voice drops, deep and soft and sincere. “Please, Annie? I need you—we both need you.”

 

She saves the message and scrolls back through his texts, unable to keep the smile from her face. Something warm and familiar flutters in her chest, and there’s no decision to be made. 

 

In the nearly five years that she’s worked for the FBI, she’s hardly touched her personal time. 

 

Maybe three weeks back at Greendale is exactly what she needs.

 

* * *

 

 

Jeff struggles to keep a squirming 13-month-old in his arms, even though he has to admit, he’s nervous enough right now that squirming sounds pretty good. “Xander, buddy, I’m not putting you down, so just… chill.”

 

His son’s jaw sets into a defiant clench, and Jeff marvels again at how much this tiny human looks like him. From the haylike blond hair that sticks out at odd angles to the point of his nose to the expressions he makes, Alexander is all Winger. Jeff’s chest swells with pride… right up until he sees the gleam of menace in Xander’s eyes a split second before his son lets out a banshee cry and kicks his feet. 

 

With an apologetic glance at the other people in the arrivals area, he steps back against the wall and hoists the toddler up to his face. “Alexander, stop. I know you want down, but you have to stay with Daddy so you don’t get lost. If you get lost, you can’t see Annie, can you?”

 

Xander shakes his head, bottom lip jutting out. “Annie?” he says in a piteous voice, one fist rubbing at his eye. Even though he’s never met most of the Greendale Seven face-to-face, Xander has seen pictures and participated in enough Skype sessions to develop a fascination with Jeff’s far-flung friends, particularly Annie. Like father, like son, Jeff thinks now with a grin.

 

“That’s right. Annie’s coming today, just to see you! We’re gonna meet her right over there and then she’s gonna come home and maybe we can take a nap.” The menace crosses Xander’s face again and Jeff shakes off a chill of foreboding about this kid’s teenage years. “Or maybe no nap,” he amends, even though Frankie told him to stop wavering, that he is the father and he sets the rules. 

 

But Jeff can’t bring himself to be quite that hard-nosed now. Xander hasn’t had an easy time of it lately, with his mother taking off and then his Aunt Frankie leaving for a few weeks, too. His little buddy was no doubt feeling the sting of being abandoned by not one maternal figure, but two. Jeff hopes that asking Annie to come help him out isn’t going to cause even more issues. But, really, what other choice did he have? Pay a stranger to look after Xander? After all the turmoil he’s already been through? Or even worse, Britta? The dean?  _ Chang _ ??? 

 

No, asking Annie was the right call. He knows it.

 

Xander curls into Jeff’s chest, and Jeff sighs in relief that they were able to settle another Winger v. Winger case: Xander would allow his father to hold him, with the agreement that no naps would be taken later.

 

They walk over to the crowd at Arrivals just in time for Jeff to see a familiar, beautiful brunette step off the escalator. She’s dressed in a style he immediately classifies as “old Annie meets new Annie”: flats and a teal cardigan over an expertly tailored white blouse and dark pants. He feels the lines of his face soften, as they always do when he sees her, and clutches Xander to him a little tighter. 

 

She looks up then and spots him—no wonder, considering he towers over everyone else there—and her face lights up, dark blue eyes incandescent even in the crappy airport light, and every muscle in Jeff’s body seems to unclench.

 

_ Finally _ .

 

_ She’s back. _

 

* * *

 

 

Annie locks eyes with Jeff and every doubt she’s had since she’d put in a request for personal time flies away. She all but vibrates at seeing him in person again, for the first time since accepting her job with the Indy field office, when she flew back to pack up the last of her belongings still in Colorado and celebrate her new job with her friends. She’d tried so hard that night to get him alone, to make sure they were okay, to let him know this wasn’t a  _ never _ , just a  _ not right now _ , but he’d eluded her at every turn. She’d settled for a lukewarm hug in front of everyone before he left that night and tried to swallow the disappointment, comforting herself that at least they were still friends if they’d never be anything more.

 

In the past five years, she’s told herself that she’d built up their connection, the chemistry between them, the feelings, but standing in the airport staring at him now, she knows she’s been lying. Maybe even protecting herself by downplaying how much she’d felt, knowing if she remembered how addictive his attention and care—and love?—were, she’d be back at his side in an instant. 

 

The fact that he only had to ask her once and now she’s here doesn’t trouble her as much as it probably should. She wonders if Britta has that junkie banana at the ready somewhere...

 

As Jeff moves forward in the crowd, Annie tucks the thoughts away and meets him in the middle.

 

“Milady,” he says, voice deep and gentle, and her face heats even as it splits in a grin. She can see new lines that weren’t there five years ago, differences too subtle to show via webcam—the corners of his eyes, bracketing his mouth—and it brings her joy to know that those lines are born of happiness. The bitter jaded hipster has faded, and gone along with it his beard. Oh, he still has a bit of stubble, enough to make Annie want to run her fingers over it, and he’s still as devastatingly attractive as when they met. Some visceral part of her yearns for him, after all this time.

 

“Milord.” They’re both grinning now, like a pair of idiots, and Annie tears her eyes away for a minute to look at the little boy with his face half-pressed into Jeff’s cobalt blue shirt. She strokes the baby’s soft, chubby arm and smiles at him just as brightly as she had his father. “Mi-little-lord.”

 

Xander grins and lunges towards her and Annie has no choice but to catch his sturdy body with an, “ _ Oomph _ ,” and laughs over Jeff’s cursing apologies. “Jeff, it’s fine. Hey, Xander,” she says, hoisting him onto her hip. “Do you know who I am?”

 

He grabs a handful of her hair, leans against her shoulder, and shoots her a bashful look through his thick brown lashes. “Annie,” he says shyly, and that’s it. She’s done. Cuteness overload. Her heart is a goner.

 

She squeezes him and drops a kiss on his forehead. “That’s right. What do you say we go back to your place and you can open the present I brought you?” He gasps, probably more at her excited tone than the words, and Annie pauses and looks back at his father. “That’s okay, right?”

 

Jeff’s face is doing something she’s never seen before, his eyes impossibly soft and his mouth tipped up in this heart-breaking, wistful smile, and she wonders what he sees when he looks at her and his son together. But he shakes it off and forces a scowl. “Well, I’m not gonna be the bad guy who says ‘no present’ now, am I?” He grabs the handle of her rolling suitcase and nudges her into motion. 

 

* * *

 

 

Xander dozes off as soon as the car is in on the road, leaving Annie and Jeff to catch up—her big case, his students, her take on global current events, his synopsis of Greendale current events. The ease with which they return to normal is nothing and everything at the same time.

 

Jeff can’t help but glance into the rear-view mirror even though he can’t see much more than the back of Xander’s car seat and a wild tuft of blond hair sticking straight up. He’s not even sure how often he does it, but almost every time, he looks at Annie afterward to find her eyes dancing with amusement. Finally he asks, “ _ What? _ ” in the most exasperated tone he can manage. Which is tempered by a lot more fondness than he intends.

 

She shrugs and bites her lip and he turns back to the road, trying not to remember how she tasted the last time they kissed. “Oh, nothing,” she says, voice light, “it’s just… Jeff Winger: Father? That’s not something I thought I’d live to see.”

 

“Why not?”

 

“Um, Jeff, c’mon. If we did superlatives at Greendale, you would’ve been voted Least Likely to Settle Down. You explicitly told me you never would.” She turns towards him as much as the seat belt allows. “I guess I just assumed your cynical views on marriage and love would extend to having kids.”

 

He nods. “I can see that. But I did want kids. Although I don’t think I ever came close to admitting it out loud until I was arguing with Pierce’s dad before he died.”

 

She snorts. “You mean, before you  _ killed _ him.” She chuckles when he rolls his eyes. “But really, it’s very sweet how you are with Xander, even just the little I’ve seen. Oh, and what I’ve heard from Britta, Dean Pelton, and Frankie. It’s a good look on you,” she admits, her voice gentle, like he’ll spook if she compliments him too hard. “You look good. Content.”

 

Swallowing over the knot in his throat, he smirks and slides his gaze over. “Did you expect any less?” It’s her turn to roll her eyes as she faces forward again, and they sit silently for a minute before he says, “You do, too, you know. Look good. And I’m really grateful that you’re here.”

 

Annie touches his hand where it rests on the gear shift, the contact gossamer-light and fleeting. He resists the urge to flex his fingers. “Of course, Jeff. When Britta called and told me what happened…”

 

He barks out a bitter laugh. “Yeah. I was so worried about turning into my father, I didn’t realize I wasn’t the problem.” She  _ awwws _ and he gives a short shake of his head and glances in the rear-view again. “I’m sorry, I don’t really like to talk about it in front of him. Even when he’s asleep. He picks up so much, you know, and she’s still, biologically at least, his mother. If she ever changes her mind… I don’t want to poison him against her.” She hums and he licks his lips, nerves buzzing again. “I’m sorry that you had to hear it from Britta. I should’ve called you myself, but—"

 

“It’s fine, you had a lot to deal with. I understand.”

 

His bullshit-meter stays baseline and he knows she means it. “Still, I, uh, it’s important to me that you all know I’m making an effort to stay in touch. I don’t want us to drift out of each other’s lives again.”

 

When she stays quiet, he looks over and finds her smiling out the passenger window, and his heart turns over in his chest. She’d always been more mature and self-possessed than anyone her age had a right to be, but there’s something about this fully realized adult version of Annie that moves him. As much as he’d missed her over the past six years, seeing her now, seeing the woman she’s become, Jeff knows he made the right decision after she’d dropped the bomb about her internship.

 

He’d truly let her go and moved on himself. Maybe it hadn’t worked out in his best interest in the long run, but it had been the right call for Annie and that was enough.

 

* * *

 

 

Back at Jeff’s house, Xander finishes his nap in his crib and Annie listens patiently while Jeff gives her a crash course in toddler care. She almosts wants to scoff and remind him that no matter how long it’s been, she’s still Annie Edison, and she did her homework after agreeing to this. But she resists the urge and lets him work out his anxiety about leaving his son with a new person by explaining how the child-locks on the cabinets work, what foods Xander is eating, how to best avoid being peed on while changing a diaper, and so on.

 

“And if you want to bring him by campus,” he says, trying to be casual and failing, “for lunch or whatever, that’s fine.”

 

Annie can read between the lines and knows Jeff is used to having access to Xander whenever he wants. She melts a little while he avoids her eyes and fiddles with the baby monitor. “I can do that. But since I don’t have a car, we’ll have to take you to work and pick you up, too. Are you sure you trust me with your baby? And in this instance, by baby I mean car,” she teases.

 

He scoffs. “Annie, if you knew the horrors that car has seen… If fatherhood has done nothing else, it’s taught me that no material possession, no matter its brand or luxury features, is above being crapped or puked on by a baby.” They share a smile and it’s like she’s eighteen again, heart racing and mouth dry.

 

She’s the first one to look away, shaken at how easy it is for her to fall back into the same patterns. But something clicks inside her, like a piece falling into place, and she realizes  _ this _ is what she’s been missing back in Indy. This connection, the way they fall in sync effortlessly, instinctively. 

 

She reminds herself what it was like the first six years they knew each other, up to and including the night before she left for Indianapolis. How frustrating and heart-breaking it was to never know where she stood with him. How it felt to have him act one way in private and then say or do something different in public. How many times she had to talk herself out of loving him.

 

He told her once that he’d let her go and she learned to do the same. He’d started seeing Xander’s mother, Cheryl, right around the time she’d been semi-serious with a firefighter named Patrick. After she had broken that off, she’d wondered, in some secret part of her heart, if when Jeff was single again she couldn’t talk to him, try to rekindle something, and maybe transfer to the Denver field office. Then she’d found out that Xander was on the way and that wish had died a quiet death. 

 

After seeing Jeff and his son together now, she can’t help but think this is how it was meant to play out. Maybe they’d had to be apart at first so Xander could be born, and this time around, they’d be ready for something more. Maybe being a parent had changed Jeff just enough, so he could be honest about his feelings. Maybe this time… She catches herself before she spirals.  _ It’s out of your control, Sally Bowles _ . She grimaces. Okay, not her best. 

 

Jeff walks past her, saying something, and Annie tunes back in to hear, “—nine in the morning, which isn’t horrible. One of the perks of being Craig’s favorite faculty member.” He smirks and waves her to the couch, a boxy gray piece that’s surprisingly plush. 

 

“Frankie emailed me after I agreed to come,” Annie says, as she sits beside him, “and asked me to keep an eye on the dean as well as you guys.” The email had been restrained considering the circumstances. Especially given how adamant Frankie had been in the past that Annie untangle herself from the complicated nest of codependency that was her Greendale family. “Stopping by for lunch will give me a great excuse to check on him.”

 

Jeff agrees and runs through Xander’s daily routine, stopping only when the monitor at his side starts broadcasting baby chatter. He raises a brow at her and Annie doesn’t hesitate to get to her feet and walk into Jeff’s bedroom where the crib is set up. 

 

Xander stands, gripping the rails and babbling to the room at large, and Annie can’t help but imagine he's giving his own mini-Winger speech. Giggling, she walks over to him, running her palm over the downy hair sprouting up in clumps. “All re-charged, little man? Let’s change that diaper, so you can go open your present.” He giggles, too, and raises his arms, giving a little bounce as she lifts him, like he’s trying to help, and she laughs again. 

 

They sit on the living room rug while she changes him, ignoring Jeff hovering off to the side, and when Xander’s all buttoned back up, she helps him decimate the rocketship wrapping paper she spent nearly an hour deliberating over. It’s worth it though when he finally sees the stuffed dog she’s bought him, his eyes going large and mouth opening enough that Annie can see his few little baby teeth. 

 

“Look at that, buddy!” Jeff says, sprawling on his side next to them and taking the dog to give it a once over. No doubt checking for tags or buttons or something else that Xander could stick in his mouth. Annie tries not to be offended and Jeff hands it back to his son, satisfied by its safety. “A dog. What do you want to name him?” 

 

Xander lets out one emphatic syllable and Annie furrows her brow when Jeff groans and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Did he… Did he just say ‘ _ Chang _ ’?”

 

Jeff sighs and drops his hand. “Yes. For some reason, it’s one of the seven or so words he’s pretty good at, along with ‘no’, ‘da-da’—"

 

“Annie,” she says, pressing a smile into the top of Xander’s head while he talks to his new toy.

 

With a sheepish grin, Jeff nods, then watches in dismay as Xander chants an only slightly garbled version of their former Spanish teacher’s name. 

 

Taking mercy on him, Annie puts her hand next to Xander’s on the stuffed animal and asks, “What does the dog say, Xander?”

 

His blue eyes are owlish as he tips his head back, and he quiets as he awaits her wisdom.

 

“Woof woof!” she says, making the toy jump with each noise and Xander giggles. He releases his tight grip on the synthetic fur and Annie makes it jump again, woofing and panting and pretending that the dog is licking Xander’s face.

 

With a squeal, he climbs to his feet, turns, and grabs the dog from her hand, thrusting it up to her face. “Annie!” She goes along with it, pretending the dog is licking her face, too, as he holds it up and says her name, again and again.

 

Finally tired of this game, he toddles on unsteady feet to where Jeff lies watching them and extends the dog again. “Da-da!” he starts and Jeff plays along patiently and Annie struggles to reconcile this version of Jeff with the one she knew before. It isn’t until he turns the toy back on his son and shoots Annie a put-upon eye roll that the fog clears and she thinks,  _ Oh, it’s still you; this is just a part you wouldn’t — _ couldn’t— _ show me before. _

 

Her chest feels too tight and her eyes sting, but it’s pure happiness, seeing Jeff so open, and Annie knows that whatever else comes over the next few weeks, this alone is worth it.

 

* * *

 

 

Once Xander is down for the night and Annie goes to unpack, Jeff tidies up, trying to shake off the restlessness prickling through his limbs. It should feel weird, weaving Annie into his home life, shouldn’t it? Instead, she fits in seamlessly, like she’s always been there and always will be, and Jeff can’t let himself believe that. She’s only here for three weeks and then he’ll not only have to pick up the pieces of his own re-broken heart, but he’ll have to try to help Xander as well.

 

God, this really was a terrible idea, wasn’t it? What the hell was he thinking? Is he really so stupid as to believe that Annie flitting into their lives for a while and then leaving again wouldn’t cause more damage? Or is he actually delusional enough to think that maybe she’ll stay this time?  _ Do you have any idea what I want?  _ her voice says in his head and he drops into a dining room chair with a weary sigh. 

 

“Tired?” she asks from behind him, and he shakes his head as she sits in the chair adjacent to his. She’s changed into a pair of gray leggings and a well-worn dark blue FBI sweatshirt, her hair in a messy bun, and she looks so young again that Jeff has to remind himself she’s thirty now. When she realizes he’s not going to expound on his sigh, she nudges his leg with a bare foot. “You didn’t have to move the crib into your room or set up a bed for me. I would’ve been fine on the couch.”

 

He winces. “Yeah, that’s, uh… Xander’s never used that room. He’s always slept in the master with me.”

 

She tilts her head in thought, adding her own wince when she realizes. “Cheryl. She stayed in there while you guys slept in the other room? How long?”

 

“Oh, pretty much as soon as she came home after giving birth,” he says, trying to keep his voice light. 

 

“Jeff.” Her voice throbs with the pain he won’t let himself show. “Why didn’t… why didn’t you tell us—me, I guess—what was going on? We would’ve—"

 

‘What, uprooted your lives to come help me?” He frowns. “It’s bad enough I had to ask it of you now.”

 

“I wouldn’t have come if I didn’t want to.”

 

That’s a relief, at least, and some of the weight falls off his shoulders. “I thought it was just, you know, post-partum or something. So I tried to be supportive and I did what she asked—moving the crib in with me and setting up a spare bed for her, taking care of Xander while she wanted nothing to do with him. I begged her to get help and she started seeing a therapist, but it didn’t work. She couldn’t even  _ look _ at Xander, let alone hold him or take care of him. I didn’t know what else to do, so I started bringing him to school and Frankie offered to help while I was in class.”

 

He looks up when Annie rests her hand on his arm, seeing tears swimming in her eyes. Covering her fingers with his palm, he sighs again.

 

“After about five months, Cheryl told me she wanted to relinquish her parental rights. Legally. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy—the state really frowns on someone who doesn’t have a good reason just walking away from their kid—but I knew someone pretty good who practiced family law. It tooks a few months, then it was done. And she left,” he says, still in shock months later. “She never even asked to say goodbye.”

 

Annie sniffles, her hand now stroking his arm. “Oh, Jeff. I’m sorry you had to go through that. Britta only told me that Cheryl left, none of the other stuff.”

 

He clears his throat and stares hard at the table. “To be fair, no one really knows the whole story, so I’d appreciate if you’d, you know, keep it that way.”

 

“Of course.”

 

“The worst part,” he says, jaw clenching, “is that Xander was planned. She and I talked about starting a family, decided it was time, made all the choices together. It was her decision to name him Alexander, after her father, and my only caveat was that we couldn’t call him Alex, because, well, Starburns.” He hears Annie’s weak giggle but doesn’t look up. “And then I don’t know what happened. I could tell by the start of her third trimester that something was going on. She didn’t seem as interested. I think I knew then that she was going to run, I just didn’t want to acknowledge it.”

 

She watches him for a silent minute. “You couldn’t have stopped her. Not if she made up her mind that early.”

 

Her words hit him in the solar plexus. “I’ll never know for sure, will I?” he says bitterly. “And now, because of me, my kid is going to grow up like I did, with one parent and knowing that the other didn’t love him enough to stay.”

 

“No.” Her voice is firm and when he looks up, her face is formidable. It almost makes him smile. “That’s her fault. Not yours. And you know better than anyone that even though being abandoned sucks, sometimes it’s better than being raised by a parent that doesn’t want to be there. At least it all happened before he was old enough to really understand, and you can help shape him into someone who is equipped to deal with the pain he’ll feel once he does know about Cheryl.”

 

He doesn’t say anything, letting her words sink in while they sit in silence, and he has to admit, she has a point. Maybe he was too quick to blame himself, or maybe he is to blame, but ultimately, blame is not going to help his son cope. And that’s the part he needs to worry about moving forward.

 

“I should go to bed,” she says quietly after a while, and Jeff nods, rising to his feet to hug her. His stubble snags a few strands of her hair as he presses his cheek to the top of her head and breathes in the heady berry scent of her. 

 

Too soon, she releases him and walks away, pausing on the threshold of the guest room. “Jeff, you said Cheryl picked Xander’s name. Just curious—did you have one in mind?”

 

His breath catches in his throat. “Sebastian,” he manages to get out. “I thought about naming him Sebastian. But I never suggested it.” He couldn’t bring himself to; it felt like betraying Annie in some way, though he can’t say that now.

 

She turns and smiles at him, and it’s too much. “I like that name.”

 

The door closes behind her and Jeff slumps back in his chair, staring at the ceiling, ruminating on how thoroughly fucked he is over her. Again. Or maybe still. 

 

He’ll never learn his lesson, will he?


	2. Chapter 2

Annie and Xander don’t make it off campus after dropping Jeff off. She spends the majority of the intervening three and a half hours before they meet for lunch talking Dean Pelton down from tearing apart Frankie’s office to find the school’s banking information.

 

Around noon, she decides to wait for Jeff in the cafeteria, endlessly amused by the students who want to come say hi to Baby Greendale. She doesn’t see many familiar faces, which makes sense, given how long ago she was a student, but she stills feels like she's come home.

 

When Britta and Duncan make it through the food line, arguing over some study, Annie’s not sure they even notice her. They slide into the opposite side of the booth like it’s just another normal day, until Britta concludes her argument with, “... heteronormative and ableist perception of the impact of puppets on developing motor skills. Hi, Annie!”

 

Annie blinks and grins. “Hi, Britta! Duncan.”

 

“Ah, Miss Edison, a pleasure to see you,” Duncan says with a smile, flitting a glance to where she’s helping Xander stand on the empty stretch of her side of the booth. “And with young Mr. Winger. Jeff did tell me you’d flown in to help wrangle his offspring.”

 

“Just until Frankie gets back.” Annie ignores the look Britta and Duncan share and smiles at Xander as he bounces in place. “I caught up with the dean earlier and we’re waiting to eat lunch with Jeff.” 

 

Britta makes a face. “Ugh, Jeff is meeting you here?” She eyes her muffin, crams the remaining half in her mouth, and slides out of the other side of the booth, grabbing her bag. “Annie, I’ll catch up with you later. Bye-bye, Xander!” she says, garbled through her food, moving to touch the little boy, who burrows into Annie’s side.

 

“Noooooo! No,” he cries and Britta’s face falls.

 

“Oh, Britta.” Annie pulls Xander into her lap, patting his back, watching Britta in concern.

 

“It’s fine,” she says with a tight-lipped smile after swallowing hard. “He never quite warmed up to me when he was younger and now I don’t see him much unless I stop by Frankie’s office. And I don’t have a reason to do that very often, so… It’s fine.”

 

Were Jeff and Britta on shaky ground again? Annie wonders why neither one of them mentioned it, if so, but only offers, “Well, maybe now that he’s spending time with me during the day, you and I can meet for coffee so he can get to know you.”

 

The hurt on Britta’s face morphs into a shy smile. “I’d like that. And so we can catch up, too, of course. I should really go, though. See you, Duncan.”

 

He merely nods, his eyes shrewd as he watches Annie comfort Xander. “You know,” he says when the uncomfortable silence stretches on too long, “I honestly thought if anyone could get Winger to settle down, it’d be you.” She makes a noncommittal sound that he apparently takes as encouragement. “I mean, you—and not just you, but your band of misfits—did all that work housebreaking him, and then you just...  _ left _ .” He shakes his head in bewilderment.

 

Annie scowls. “He wasn’t a misbehaved puppy; we didn’t  _ housebreak _ him. We—all seven of us—grew from our experience as a group. And part of that was me learning that if I wanted to succeed in life, I had to let go of some things. Or at least, not grasp them so tightly,” she murmurs, thinking of a cool night spent roadside in an RV.

 

Duncan hums, then looks pointedly at where her arms are wrapped around Xander, and says, “And yet, here you are.”

 

She has nothing to say to that, only tucks Xander a little closer, and soon enough, Duncan is prattling something about grabbing a drink before his next class, leaving Annie alone to stew.

 

Luckily, Jeff walks over shortly after that and Annie brushes a few strands of hair out of Xander’s eyes. “Look, Xander, Daddy’s here!”

 

He gasps and digs his little heels into her thigh as he tries to find enough purchase to stand on her lap. She winces, grateful when Jeff takes him and they slide in across the table.

 

“You know,” he says, after greeting Xander with a raspberry to his cheek, “of all the ways I imagined you calling me ‘daddy’...” and chuckles when she groans.

 

“ _ Jeff! _ Don’t be gross.” 

 

He grins, unrepentant, and looks down as Xander starts babbling at him, and Annie can see the weight melt off Jeff’s shoulders. She wants to ask him about Britta, to talk about her weird semi-accusatory conversation with Duncan, or even tell him about the dean this morning, but his face is so tranquil as he holds a pretend conversation with his son that she can’t ruin it. 

 

She catches his eye and motions that she’s going to go get lunch for both of them and he smiles at her, before he turns back to Xander.

 

As they tuck into their salads and Xander into his Cheerios while he balances on Jeff’s knee, Jeff tells her about the new Intro to Logic class he’s teaching this semester and how well he thinks it’s going, even if it is overwhelming some days, and Annie can’t help her rush of pride.

 

It must show on her face, because he stops mid-sentence to smirk at her. “Okay, get it out of your system now.”

 

She folds her hands beneath her chin and lets out her longest  _ Awwwwwww _ ever. 

 

He rolls his eyes, but he can’t hide his pleased smile or the slight color in his cheeks. He covers by going for a Cheerio in Xander’s cup, only to pull up short when Xander bats his hand away. 

 

“Mine!” he says, face screwed up like he’s going to scream bloody murder if they push him.

 

“Well, okay then.” Jeff shakes his head and grins at her. “I guess we’ve learned a new word.”

 

Annie winces when she thinks of the dean’s tantrum earlier that morning. “Yeah, I think I know who to thank for that one,” she says, then waves him off when he furrows his brow. “Later. Back to this class...”

 

Jeff fields all her questions with ease, warming to his topic, and Annie can’t suppress a tiny surge of envy. How is it that Jeff is more satisfied with his job—teaching at Greendale, no less—than she is working for the FBI? She loves her work, loves the challenge of scouring a crime scene and analyzing data and putting the pieces together, but at the end of the day… 

 

“Sorry,” Jeff says, pulling her back to their conversation. “I know this is probably boring compared to catching killers.” His tone is teasing, but he doesn’t look at her, focusing instead on wiping mushy cereal off Xander’s hand.

 

“No, it’s not that,” she admits. “I love how excited you are about your class. About teaching. And I’m so happy that you’re content. I’m just…” She shakes her head and concentrates on a bead of condensation running down her water bottle. 

 

She feels him looking at her as he says her name hesitantly, and she meets his gaze in time to see his face clear. “You’re not content,” he says, and it’s a realization, not a question. “But I thought you loved your job, Indianapolis.”

 

“I do! Well, the job. Although it can be a little… I don’t know, clinical? Desensitizing? And Indy is just a city where I live, like any other, it’s not  _ home _ , I don’t have—"  _ anyone _ , she thinks with a hitch in her breath. 

 

He nods and she doesn’t doubt he’s filled in the blank. “Can I tell you a secret? Well, it’s probably not that big of a secret, but when you—and Abed, too—left, I didn’t know how to cope. I mean, it was one thing when it was Pierce who was gone, but then it was Troy, and Shirley. One by one, you all just faded away. You guys spent years worming your way into my life, making me believe we were a family, and then you were gone. My worst fear come true.” 

 

Annie swallows hard over the lump in her throat, blinking back tears. “Jeff.”

 

“No, it’s- Annie, I’m not saying this to hurt you. But when you guys left, even though it could have confirmed all my beliefs about being distant and never caring about anything, it didn’t. It couldn’t. All it showed me was that I was…” He laughs and it’s filled with an almost self-deprecating wonder. “I was strong enough to make it through my worst fear coming true after all.”

 

“That’s really great, Jeff.” She frowns and can’t help but wonder how this relates to her problem.

 

“Thanks, but I guess my point is… Look, you guys showed me I needed a family, that I wanted one, and when the one I'd found was gone, I knew I’d be okay if I made a new one.” Jeff brushes his hand over Xander’s hair while the baby chews on his own hand. “And when that started to fall apart at the seams, I knew how to cope with it. I’m not saying you need to go start popping out kids, but I know you, Annie. We’re not that different. You need a family, too. And if you haven’t found that in Indianapolis yet or at the FBI, well, maybe you need to join a club or take up a sport. Or maybe you should think about transferring somewhere smaller, be part of a… okay, it sounds hokey, but be part of a community, be invested in the people you’re helping.”

 

She nods and begins to thank him when, from across the cafeteria, she hears, “BAAAABY GREEEEEEENDAAAAAALE!” in an unmistakable voice. Confirming her fears, Xander calls out his own greeting, and Annie turns to see Chang run up, dressed in the blue coveralls of the Greendale janitorial staff, with a rainbow patch sewn into one shoulder.

 

“Chang, I have asked you repeatedly not to call my son that!” Jeff scowls, but doesn’t stop Xander as he crawls over to take Chang up on an offered high-five.

 

“Psssh, whatever Jeff, you love it.” Chang does a double-take at her and Annie hopes her smile doesn’t look as fake as it feels. “Oh, on a date, huh? And at the cafeteria where you work. Big spender. Hi, I’m Ben Chang, and you could do so much better than this loser.” He offers an open smile and his hand to Annie, the latter she takes on instinct while sharing a confused glance with Jeff.

 

“Chang, it’s me, Annie. Edison. I was in your Spanish class. And Jeff’s study group. I got you fired. We were almost in  _ The Karate Kid _ together.”

 

His face drops, as does his hand, and he stares at her for a long beat and shakes his head. “No, I’m sorry, I don’t…” But he can’t make it through the sentence without erupting into laughter. “Kidding! Of course, I remember you. C’mon, girl, bring it in for the real thing!” And then he’s hugging her, which would be awkward anyway, but is doubly so since she’s still sitting in a booth. He uses the momentum of his lean forward to swing in beside her, and Annie has no choice but to scoot over unless she wants him in her lap.

 

“Chang,” Jeff sighs, but Annie keeps sliding until she’s standing on the other side of the booth.

 

“It’s fine. Xander and I should probably go so he can N-A-P. We’ve already spent more time on campus than I planned.”

 

Jeff doesn’t look pleased, but he nods and stands, hugging Xander before handing him off.

 

“We’ll be back at five,” she says and tries not to think that if they were the family they looked like, she’d be kissing Jeff goodbye right now, but her cheeks heat anyway. She looks down at Xander to hide it. “Say bye-bye to Daddy!”

 

As she walks away, she hears Chang snort. “Probably not the way you pictured her calling you ‘daddy’, is it, Winger?”

 

Jeff’s biting, “ _ Watch it! _ ” makes her smile all the way to the car.

 

* * *

 

 

He and Annie never pick their intense conversation back up. Instead, they spend that evening laughing over takeout and trying to teach Xander the concept of sharing.

 

Each day, they fall into the same routine as the first. When she drops him off before nine, she always walks him to his office and then takes Xander off to check on the dean. Jeff knows she meets Britta for coffee after that, but he doesn’t confront her for fear of opening up a can of worms and righteous indignation.

 

After the third day of returning home to realize that certain areas are organized just a bit differently—a cabinet here, a bookshelf there—he tells her that he doesn’t expect her to keep house for him. She’s doing him a favor by keeping an eye on Xander; she doesn’t need to cook or clean.

 

Annie’s counter-argument is persuasive: without anything else to do while Xander naps in the afternoon, she’d go stir-crazy. He’s resolved until she whips out the damn Disney eyes, and he tells her he doesn’t care what she does, as long as she knows he doesn’t expect it. Of course, Annie takes that and runs with it, and soon his house gleams from floor to ceiling. She’s even culled some of Xander’s old clothes and toys, boxing up what could be donated and pitching anything stained or broken, a task Jeff’s been putting off for months.

 

It’s a thoroughly domestic and confusing situation, and Jeff often stops himself a split-second before he can do something stupid—catch the drip of wine on her chin with his thumb, push her hair back, kiss her good morning or good night or just because she’s there, improving his life every day.

 

Friday night, Annie stumbles in the living room, almost in slow-motion, and Jeff… well, he doesn’t  _ run _ , but he does somehow get to her side quicker than he expects to. Only to find her giggling in the middle of the rug while Xander squeals with laughter in his high chair.

 

“Uh-oh!” she says then grins up at Jeff when she sees him.

 

“Are you drunk?”

 

“Jeff! No!” She takes the hand he offers and climbs to her feet. “It’s a game to show him it’s okay to fall down and it’s nothing to get upset over.” Her smile turns sheepish. “I read about it on the internet.”

 

Something snaps in his chest—his last shred of restraint maybe?—at the thought of her putting in so much effort towards caring for his son, and he steps towards her, until her chest grazes his abdomen. She shivers, head falling back as her lashes flutter and her gaze finds his mouth, and Jeff wonders how the hell he spent six years without this in his life.

 

“Annie!” A cry decimates the tension and they turn towards Xander as one. “No da-da! No, Annie! No!”

 

Annie’s mouth falls open as she looks back at Jeff, then curls up in a smirk. “He gets that jealousy from you.”

 

When she moves to step back, Jeff holds her in place with a hand on her side. “Not yet,” he murmurs, then louder, “Xander, Annie and Daddy are talking. You have to wait your turn.”

 

Xander’s face turns red and he stretches his little body, as if the indignation is too great to contain. “Noooooo! Annie!” What happens next, Jeff will remember the rest of his life. Like a switch is thrown, Xander relaxes and focuses on Annie with a tilt of his head, his eyes going wide and wet, imploring her with just a look to bend to his will. 

 

“Ohhh, Jeff!” Annie bites her lip, and he’s not sure if she’s about to laugh or cry. When she turns her gaze back to him, he raises his brow.  _ And that _ , he hopes his face broadcasts,  _ he learned from you. _ Because she’s Annie, she knows what he’s thinking, and gives a half-hearted slap to his chest, before going over to lift Xander out of the chair.

 

“Okay, little man,” she coos, tucking him close. “You’ve got my full attention.”

 

Xander wraps both hands in her hair and nestles his head against her neck, and Jeff’s heart swells, watching his two favorite people in the world. “Mine Annie,” Xander says in a lilting sing-song tone and shoots his father a smile that’s far too smug for Jeff’s liking.

 

And, yeah, Jeff feels a small prick of jealousy, both at no longer being the center of Xander’s world, and at losing Annie’s attention. But he acknowledges it, lets it go, and enjoys the moment.  _ While you can _ , a nasty voice whispers in his ear and he swallows, knowing he owes his son big time for preventing something that would only make this situation more difficult.

 

“So,” Jeff says in a light tone, “what are you doing tonight?”

 

Annie frowns at him over Xander’s head. “I don’t have any plans…”

 

He crosses his arms, shifting his weight onto one foot. “C’mon, Annie, it’s Friday. Go grab dinner or call up Britta. Take the night off. Xander and I will be fine without you.”

 

Her face clouds and he knows immediately he’s made some colossal mistake, but she hands him Xander and flounces off to the spare room before he can figure out what it is.

 

When she walks back in, no more than fifteen minutes later, she’s changed into a dark purple t-shirt with a deep V-neck, jeans, and heels, and her eyes are somehow bigger and bluer. She kneels next to where Xander plays in the living room as Jeff starts dinner and says something in a low voice, kissing his head. 

 

She stands and doesn’t look at him once before she says, “I’ll see you later,” and she’s out the door before he can respond.

 

Xander begins crying, big tears rolling down his red face, and Jeff understands completely. He moves to sit next to his son, rubbing his back. “I know, buddy. But it’ll be okay, she’ll be back. We’ll spend some time together, the two of us. Like it used to be.” The words aren’t any more comfort to him than they are to his son, and Jeff huffs a weary breath and slumps back against the front of the couch. 

 

How is it possible that one tiny woman has upended his life this much? Although why he expected any less, he can’t say, because in retrospect that’s his entire history with Annie.

 

At some point, he calms Xander and they make it through dinner, though it’s clear neither of their hearts is in it. Every so often, Xander sniffles and calls out, “Annie!” like she’s hiding from him in another room and Jeff has to remind him she’ll be back later.

 

She doesn’t make it back before bath and bedtime and Xander remains whiny throughout the entire process. He’s always been a pretty happy baby, as long as Jeff didn’t run afoul of his stubborn streak, and Jeff doesn’t often feel overwhelmed anymore. But nights like this, he misses Cheryl. Well, not Cheryl specifically, since she never pitched in with any of the parenting stuff, but he misses having someone in his life, to share the challenges and split the workload and to feel helpless with on the nights when he just has to ride out Xander’s crying.

 

Jeff hadn’t realized until this moment how nice it was all week to share that with Annie. And it’s more than childcare, he realizes in the quiet darkness of the living room once Xander is in his crib. It’s having her around to laugh with over dinner, to commiserate with over Greendale antics, or to relax with after the baby is fast asleep, like now, where he could look over and smile at her, pull her into his arms and just be... happy.

 

When he and Cheryl first started dating, he admits it was mostly a distraction. Annie made it clear she wasn’t coming back to Greendale and she’d mentioned she might move in with some guy, and Jeff was already near his mid-forties, haunted by visions of turning into Pierce. He couldn’t sit around and wait for the stars to align, until the conditions were perfect for him and Annie to find each other again. And, like he told her earlier in the week, he wanted a family.

 

Looking back, Jeff knows he wasn’t in love with Cheryl, not really. Not like he was—is?—with Annie. If anything, their relationship was more like his and Britta’s, without all the bickering: he was attracted to her and he loved her like a friend. At the time, it felt like enough. It felt like growing up.

 

From time to time, he tries to remember if he pushed Cheryl into commitment, into a family. He likes to think he didn’t—he knows they discussed it at length before trying to conceive—but he might never know if she felt pressured.

 

Now that Annie’s back in his life, that’s the last thing he wants to do to her. He doesn’t want her to give in to the ever-present sexual and romantic tension between them just because she’s here. And he doesn’t want her to feel sorry for him and give up everything she’s worked so hard for because she thinks he needs her. He wants her to have  _ everything _ , even if it doesn’t include him.

 

It’s easy to say and think, but harder to practice, though. He’s never let himself entertain the thought of having a family with Annie, beyond that one stray fantasy before she left for DC. But now that he has practical, hands-on knowledge of how it could be? He doesn’t know how he can come back from this.

  
A text lights up his phone and he holds his breath when he sees it’s from Annie.  _ See you in the morning _ , he reads, and it’s a kick to the chest. He pinches the bridge of his nose, fights off the powerful craving for a scotch, and eventually drags himself to bed for a sleepless night of staring at his ceiling.


	3. Chapter 3

When Annie wakes up in her old bedroom, she wonders if it was all a dream: leaving Greendale, working for the FBI, Jeff with a kid. But then she feels a cat lying in the small of her back and sees Britta spooning a pillow beside her, and it all comes back.

 

She winces at the light, feeling every single one of the drinks Britta served her the night before. 

 

The cat yowls and jumps down when she slides out of bed, but Britta doesn’t stir, so Annie gingerly makes her way to the bathroom, shuddering at the stale taste of her mouth. 

 

After using the toilet and gargling with mouthwash she’d dug up from deep within the cabinets—that she’s almost positive that she left behind in the first place—she stares at her reflection. Her hair is a knot and her leftover mascara smudged, but it’s the sadness in her eyes that holds her captive. 

 

She knows Jeff didn’t mean anything when he told her to take the night off, but something about it hurt. Like she was nothing more than the nanny and she’d punched her timecard, so she should kindly see herself off so Jeff could enjoy his weekend with his family. A family she wasn’t and would never be part of.

 

And yeah, of course she overreacted, because in hindsight Jeff was being considerate. Nothing more, nothing less. She feels stupid this morning, and immature, and everything she’s tried so hard not to be. And now, to add humiliation to hangover, she has to find some way to not only apologize to Jeff, but to explain to him why she got so mad in the first place. 

 

She flushes all the way down her chest at the thought and takes a moment to splash her face with cold water and straighten her slept-in clothes.

 

When she walks out, Britta closes a kitchen cabinet and smiles sheepishly. “I’d offer you breakfast, but I don’t have any food. Or coffee. Anything really.”

 

Annie smiles, which makes her face ache, so she drops it quickly. “That’s fine. I should probably get back to Jeff’s.” Britta’s entire face puckers, and Annie sighs. “Okay, what’s going on with you two?”

 

“Nothing! Why? Did Jeff say something? It’s nothing. Unless he said it was something.”

 

Annie would roll her eyes if she wasn’t sure her head would explode. “He hasn’t said anything, but it’s obviously not nothing. I haven’t seen you guys in the same room in the entire week I’ve been here.”

 

Britta groans and grabs her keys and sunglasses from the kitchen counter. “Fine,” she says, “but I want coffee first.”

 

They stop at some small hole-in-the-wall coffee shop with an expansive and confusing menu. Annie orders the same thing Britta gets, which she regrets as soon as she sips. It’s a blend that’s both bitter and floral with a strong brackish aftertaste, but Annie is too polite—and fiscally responsible—to toss it, so she adds as much raw sugar as she thinks she can get away with and nurses it.

 

Britta slides her sunglasses to the top of her head as they move towards one of the tables in the corner and seems content to sit in silence, so Annie nudges her. “So, you and Jeff? What’s the story?”

 

“It’s really nothing, it just… without you guys around to balance us, we kind of let ourselves get caught up in our stupid fights. When he and Cheryl were together, she said it was exhausting being around us because we did our best to make each other miserable. So because she didn’t want to sit through it, he and I didn’t really hang out much. And I mean…” Britta frowns. “She had a point. We weren’t always like that, but that was probably because we could decamp into separate corners and talk it out with the rest of the group. Without anyone to force us to make up, we let it drift. We stopped hanging out daily, then we only saw each other on campus. He was busy with Xander, of course, and good for him! That’s where his priorities should be. Then Cheryl left.”

 

Mindful of everything Jeff told her about that time, Annie winces.

 

“I thought maybe that’d make it better. I could offer to help him out, be a shoulder to cry on, and we’d have a reason to be friends again.” Britta shrugs miserably.

 

“What happened?”

 

“I don’t know, Annie! What do you want me to say, that I Britta’d it? Because I did.” She slumps over on the table. “I tried to get him to talk to me, because you know—Jeff, abandonment, fatherhood. It seemed rife with psychological pitfalls. I was just trying to be a good friend.” She sniffs and nudges her sunglasses back over her eyes, and Annie’s heart twists.

 

“You meant well. I know that. Jeff probably knows that, too. Did you try to apologize?”

 

That jolts Britta upright. “Apologize? Why should  _ I _ be the one to apologize? I was being supportive. It’s not my fault he’s a closed-off jag who wouldn’t know emotional maturity if it hit him in the face.”

 

“I don’t think you’re giving him enough credit, Britta,” Annie says, struggling to keep her tone civil. “He was put in a really tough situation and making the best of it. The last thing he needed—"

 

“God! You sound just like him. Although I don’t know why I’m surprised you’re taking his side. You guys have been in love with each other for over a decade.”

 

Annie’s face heats. “That’s—I’m not—that’s not true,” she manages weakly, and Britta scoffs.

 

“Of course it is. Everyone knows it. Must sting, huh, seeing that he grew up and moved on without you and built a family.” 

 

Feeling the hot press of tears behind her eyes, Annie nonetheless bites out, “Why? Is that how you feel?”

 

Britta gapes, then closes her mouth with an audible click and pushes her sunglasses back up. As soon as she meets Annie’s gaze without a barrier, her face fills with remorse. “Oh, Annie. I didn’t mean it. I’m sorry.” She swallows hard and nods. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe that’s why I didn’t push to make things right with Jeff—both before Xander was born and after. After all, he’s a certified Grown-Up now, and I still feel like a drop-out, struggling to make ends meet and stuck in a cycle of college courses that might lead nowhere.”

 

“You should come back to Jeff’s with me.” Annie nods resolutely when Britta stares at her. “No, it’ll be good. And I’ll be there to mediate, if that’s what you need. I don’t want to leave you guys like this. It’s bad enough that the rest of us went our separate ways—me in Indy, Shirley in Atlanta, Troy and Abed in LA getting their production company up and running. You guys are here, holding down the fort, and you need each other. And we need to know you’re here, that you’re home, in case we want to come back.”

 

“Are you thinking about it?” Britta asks, all faux nonchalance. “Moving back?”

 

“What?” Annie laughs and it’s shrill enough to make her head throb again. “No, no. I’m not. No, probably not. I mean, resolutely not. Nope.” She can predict what’s Britta about to say—something about a lady protesting too much—so she finishes the dregs of her coffee with a shudder, and maneuvers Britta out of the shop and back to her car.

 

The conversation stays light until they get closer to Jeff’s, when it falls off altogether. Annie doesn’t know who’s more nervous, her or Britta. Britta pulls up at the curb outside the house and they share a timid smile before simultaneously climbing out.

 

But as they're halfway up the walk, Jeff comes jogging around the corner in a dark gray tank top and basketball shorts, pushing Xander in a three-wheeled stroller, sweat glistening off his temples and bare shoulders. Xander squeals when he sees them—well, Annie knows it’s for her, but Britta lights up at the warm welcome and Annie can’t begrudge her that. 

 

Annie steps forward, moving first to unstrap Xander and hold him close, pressing kisses to his chubby cheeks while he babbles to her. She missed him more than she realized and she doesn’t know how she’s supposed to get on a plane and fly a thousand miles away in two weeks. 

 

Glancing up at Jeff, she sees the hesitation in his eyes and curses herself. He’s been walked out on enough—could there be anything worse she could’ve done? 

 

“I’m sorry,” they both say, then smile at one another. 

 

Annie clears her throat. “I didn’t mean to overreact. I know you weren’t dismissing me or whatever, like I was hired help. It just hurt my feelings a little.”

 

“Oh.” He looks nonplussed, as if he’s only now realizing the cause of all this. “No, of course. Wow. I guess that probably didn’t come out right. But, uh, did you have a good night out?” He glances at Britta and then back to her with a smirk as his eyes trace over her face. “Looks like you’re paying for it this morning.”

 

She groans, pressing her cheek to Xander’s head and breathing in his comforting baby-shampoo smell. “You have no idea.” She tips her head towards Britta and mouths, “Be nice.”

 

He rolls his eyes and moves past her with the stroller, stopping as he pulls alongside Britta. “You might as well come in for breakfast. I think I have some shredded wheat and almond milk.”

 

Britta bites back a smile. “Fine, but don’t expect me to make yours. I’m not here to fulfill some chauvinistic fantasy of—” The two of them walk into the house, still bickering, and Annie sighs.

 

“I swear,” she says to Xander, dropping a kiss on his nose when he grins at her, “if it wasn’t for us, nothing would get done. Would it, baby?”

 

He giggles and grabs her hair, babbling as carries him in, and she can’t stop thinking about Britta’s question earlier. 

 

Is she going to move back? Probably not… but maybe.

 

* * *

 

 

When Annie and Xander crash later that afternoon, they’re both sprawled in the middle of Jeff’s living room floor. Annie pillows her head on one arm while the other rests on Xander’s back as they lay curled towards one another, illuminated by a perfect sunbeam.

 

He stops grading papers for a moment and takes a picture, because he’s only human, and he’s not sure what compels him, but he sends it out to the entire former study group.

 

Britta, who wore out her welcome and finally left a few hours ago to go to work, sends a thumbs-up emoji.

 

Shirley sends, “Awwww!” followed by every heart she can find.

 

Troy and Abed stay silent, or at least Jeff thinks so, until he hears the Skype request notification on his laptop. Cursing, he takes it into his bedroom, gently closing the door behind him, before he answers. “The normal etiquette for a text is to reply with a text. Not to call.”

 

“Classic Jeff,” Abed says, making finger guns into the camera. He’s hardly changed since the last time Jeff saw him, after Troy finally made it home three years ago.

 

Speaking of, Troy’s sitting pressed up against Abed’s side so they both fit in frame, and he shakes his head. He’s sporting a close-cropped beard that makes him look much more mature than Jeff remembers. “Sorry, man, but we had a brilliant, amazing—brimazing? we’ll workshop that—idea.”

 

“Troy still holds shares at Hawthorne Wipes and—" 

 

“Well, I’d hope so,” Jeff says. “He inherited a sizable percentage. Wait, exactly how much have you sold off to fund your production company?”

 

Abed stills, prey sensing imminent danger. “That’s not important.”

 

Troy throws an arm around Abed’s shoulders. “That’s right. What’s important is the  _ craft _ , Jeff,” he says in a serious voice, but his panicked expression is telegraphing clear as day: too many.  _ That’s  _ how many shares he’s sold off.

 

Jeff groans, pressing his fingers to his eyes, then sighs. That’s a problem for another day. One that’s most likely coming soon and will end up with one or both of these grown men sleeping on his couch, but… another day nonetheless. “Okay,” he manages. “And?”

 

“They’re having a shareholder meeting in a week and a half, so we’ll be in town that Thursday and Friday.” 

 

Abed nods. “I wasn’t going to come this time, but after you sent the picture of Annie, I remembered she was in town and thought we could see her.”

 

“She’d love that,” Jeff answers, a smile overtaking him as he imagines her reaction. Guaranteed happy tears. 

 

Troy and Abed share one of their silent-conversation looks, Troy quirking a brow and Abed thinking for a moment before nodding. 

 

The gleam in their eyes makes Jeff nervous and he blurts, “Wait, does this mean you’ve been coming to town for every shareholder meeting? And you never stopped by?”

 

Troys’s face falls and Abed’s goes even more impassive. “Uhhhhh, well. I mean, yeah. I kinda have to be there,” Troy stammers, and rushes to add, “but I was only coming in for like the day and then I left right away.”

 

Trying not to show his hurt, Jeff nods. “No, it’s okay.”

 

“We didn’t tell Britta either,” Abed says.

 

“Yeah, man, we just didn’t want you guys worrying about how much money we were investing into Trobed Productions.”

 

“I get it.” And Jeff does. After all, he spent years avoiding his mother and most of his closest acquaintances to hide the shame of being suspended and enrolling in community college. “But Troy… why didn’t you just send a proxy instead of flying in every time?”

 

Troy scoffs. “Uh, you know I love that kind of stuff as much as the next dude, but what good would a butt doctor be at a shareholder meeting? Stick to law, Jeff, and leave business to me.”

 

And, really, there’s nothing Jeff can say to that, so he glances over his shoulder and then whips back around in fake urgency. “I think Annie’s waking up. Let’s keep this a surprise. See you soon.”

 

He barely waits for the guys to say their good-byes before disconnecting and shaking his head. If nothing else, he can at least find comfort in the consistency of his friends’ antics.

 

Annie is awake, he finds when he walks back into the living room. She’s still lying on her side, curled towards Xander, but she’s tracing his brow, along his cheek, to his ear and his puckered little mouth with lazy, peaceful movements. Jeff understands, because it’s nothing he hasn’t done before, marveling over the miracle that is this little boy.

 

When Xander was a newborn, Jeff could hardly stand to put him down, half in rapture over his son and half terrified that if he let him out of his sight, he’d be gone and Jeff would wake up to find that it had all been a dream. After Cheryl left, Jeff fell back into the habit of holding Xander too often and for too long, as if that could make up for the lack of a parent.

 

He’s always been alone in his quiet reverence, so seeing Annie, of all people, doing the same, sharing that with her even if just by witnessing it? It moves him and makes him yearn and mourn what might have been, if only he’d been a little more selfish, a little quicker on the uptake, and brave enough to tell her how he felt before it was too late.

 

But the truth is, if he had to do it all over again, he probably wouldn’t change a thing, not if he couldn’t be certain that he’d still have Xander. 

 

He steps forward and Annie jumps at the sound, pressing a hand to her heart. “Jeff!” she whisper-scolds. 

 

“Sorry,” he says with a very non-contrite grin. “Feeling better?”

 

She hums and stretches, breasts pressing against the thin t-shirt she’d changed into, and Jeff looks away—well, after a beat. “Yeah.” She stands and walks towards him, close enough that they can keep their voices down. “I forgot how good Britta was at selling alcohol. I don’t even want to know how much I drank last night.”

 

Drinking is a touchy subject for him, not one he wants to get into right now, so he doesn’t comment, settling on a nod and rocking back on his heels. “How does pizza sound tonight?”

 

“Like heaven.”

 

Turning, he goes for the menu stuck to his fridge and his phone chimes with a text alert. When he sees it’s from Annie, he looks over to find her staring at her phone with a soft, radiant smile. 

 

She’s replied to the picture of her and Xander with a heart-eyes emoji.

 

Later that night, over the remains of a medium pizza, he notices she set the picture as her wallpaper.

 

He waits until she’s gone to bed before he does the same.


	4. Chapter 4

By the time Monday rolls around, Annie has run out of nooks of the house to clean, emails to answer, and weeds to pull. Idleness has never been her strong suit and she’s missing work more by the hour.

 

She and Xander pick Jeff up promptly at five that night, and she wheedles him into driving out of the way to Target, just so she has something to do. 

 

Shopping with Jeff and Xander is an experience, and she’s not sure which one is the bigger baby. Every time she pauses for more than thirty seconds to look at something, Jeff paces the aisle they’re in or walks away, only coming back when he has something “really cool” to show her that’s inevitably in a different part of the store. 

 

Whenever Jeff is out of immediate eyesight, Xander whines if she looks away. He grabs at anything within his reach, up to and including random people passing by. The third time she has to apologize to someone, Jeff walks up and she pushes the cart and her list at him with a huff. “Go get all of this and then text me when you guys are done and I’ll meet you by the registers.”

 

Both Wingers pout at her, but Annie’s resolve holds firm, and Jeff finally does as she asked.

 

She revels in the peace for a good five minutes before remorse sets in. 

 

Wandering around the store on her own loses its appeal as soon as she remembers that this is all she has to look forward to in less than two weeks. In twelve days, she’ll fly back to her life in Indiana and wish she hadn’t squandered the time she could’ve spent with Jeff and Xander.

 

Annie gives it ten more minutes, for the principle of the matter, before she pulls out her phone and texts Jeff,  _ What aisle are you in? _

 

He responds immediately and she sets off to meet them, her heart swelling when both their faces light up at the sight of her. As she puts her few items in the cart, she notices Jeff made decent headway on her list and she gives him a pleased little smile, at which he rolls his eyes. 

 

“Yes, Annie, I’m a grown-up capable of shopping for household necessities.”

 

“I know!” She nudges him with her shoulder. “Although I was beginning to have my doubts back there.”

 

He laughs, but it’s a little strained. “Yeah, I guess I still have that latent streak of immaturity. I don’t get many opportunities to indulge these days.”

 

He’s obviously embarrassed, and Annie, to even the scale, blurts out, “Sometimes I check up on Annie Kim’s Twitter, to see which of us has the more successful life.”

 

Jeff looks at her in shock for a beat, but his laugh is much more genuine this time. “And?” he asks, nudging her back.

 

Annie tries to look ashamed, but she can’t bite back her grin. “Well, I mean… Success is subjective…” Jeff scoffs and her grin widens. “But I clearly am the winner!”

 

“I never doubted it for a second,” he says and the warmth in his voice makes her a little breathless. Her eyes meet his and the store falls away and they’re caught up in each other… until Xander grabs onto the nearest shelf and pulls an entire stack of towels down onto the floor.

 

Jeff turns back to his son. “Buddy, what’d I tell you about that?” He stoops to pick up the wad of unfolded towels, glances at the mess in his arms, then around the immediate vicinity, before he shoves them all back on the shelf as is, grabs her arm, and leads her and the cart away from the scene of the crime in haste.

 

“Jeff!” Annie turns back even as she jogs to keep up, and a giggle bubbles out of her. He finally stops, turning to grin at her madly, and the giggle morphs into a full-fledged belly laugh when Xander claps his hands like it’s all a big game.

 

When Annie finally composes herself, she swats at Jeff’s chest. “Some poor person who barely makes minimum wage is going to have to straighten that up!”

 

He gives her an unimpressed look. “You say that like I, a teacher at Greendale Community College, make so much more.”

 

She has to concede the point, pulling the list from his hand when she notices they’ve almost closed the loop around the entire store. After checking it against the contents of the cart, she hums. “Pretty good. The only thing we’re still missing is diapers.”

 

He curses. “Okay, wait right here and I’ll go get them.”

 

She’s close enough to the kids’ clothes so she pushes Xander over and idly looks at a few outfits. “You’re getting so big, it’s not going to be long until you’re in these sizes, huh, baby?”

 

He gives her a sweet smile and Annie can’t help but kiss his temple. 

 

“Oh, he’s an adorable little boy, isn’t he?” someone says behind her and Annie turns to find the oldest woman she’s ever seen beaming at the two of them. “How old is he?”

 

“Thirteen months.”

 

The woman nods. “Ah, you’ve still got some time before the terrible twos set in then. Although I’m sure he’s working his way up to it already. One of my great-grandsons is about the same age, and he’s a handful.”

 

Annie smiles, thinking of the day he used Disney eyes on her—her! She invented that move! “He’s definitely learning how to get what he wants.”

 

With a dry laugh, the woman pats Annie on the arm. “If he stays this cute, that could turn into a problem when he gets older.”

 

“I know,” Annie says, rolling her eyes. “He gets it from his dad, who has exploiting his looks down to an art.”

 

The woman laughs so hard, Annie’s concerned she’s going to break in half and she tries to hold her upright. “Well,” the woman manages, still a little breathless from laughing, “he may get his looks from his daddy, but he got them big blue eyes from his mama, didn’t you, little man?”

 

“Oh! I’m not…” Visions of hotel stays past dance in her head, warning of the dangers of playing along, and Annie stammers, “He’s not my—"

 

Jeff, of course, chooses this moment to walk back up, dumping the diapers into the cart. “I went ahead and got two packs. We’ll use them. Sorry,” he says, stopping short as he realizes Annie’s not alone, flashing a charming smile, “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

 

The woman hums and murmurs to Annie, “I see what you mean.” Then louder, “I was just admiring your little boy here.” She starts to shuffle past, stopping to pat Jeff’s forearm. “So cute,” she says, and Annie has the feeling she’s talking about more than Xander.

 

“I probably should’ve warned you about that,” he tells her as they join one of the lines to check out. “Xander is like old lady catnip. We get stopped almost every time we’re out.”

 

Annie ekes out a smile and if it looks as strained as it feels, Jeff doesn’t comment. 

 

She keeps waiting for the other shoe to drop, for someone to call her out on pretending this is her family. 

 

It never happens, but she remains tense until they’re back on the road towards home.

 

No. Not home. Jeff’s house, she tells herself sternly. Jeff’s house that she definitely does not live at, because she is  _ not _ part of this family.

 

* * *

 

 

Annie’s unusually quiet once they get home and after Xander is fed, bathed, and in bed, she pours them each a glass of the wine she’d bought and folds herself into a corner of the couch, knees tucked up beneath her chin.

 

Jeff carries his glass over to the living room, because it seems rude to leave it even if he’s not going to drink, and sits at the opposite end, facing her.

 

She breaks the tense silence, startling Jeff. “Do you worry it was a mistake, me coming here?” 

 

His first instinct is to deny it, because it feels like a trap. But she clearly has something on her mind, and if he’s not honest with her, he knows she won’t open up. So he takes a calculated risk and says, “Of course.” When she doesn’t act offended, he continues, “With how close you and Xander have gotten, I worry about how he’ll react when you leave.”

 

Annie nods and takes a healthy swig from her glass. “Do you regret calling me?” she asks, voice small.

 

“Not at all.” He waits until she looks up at him and gives her a small smile. “I love watching you with him, Annie. It’s been the highlight of every day since you flew in. And I like having you around. I know we talk when we can, but…”

 

“It’s not the same,” she says with a nod and her eyes move over his face, gentling as whatever mood she’d picked up earlier lifts. “It’s just going to be worse now, you know. I’m going to be calling all the time, bugging you for pictures and videos.”

 

He grins. “Good. I hope that means you’ll be visiting more often, too.” He looks down and toys with a loose thread in the couch’s fabric “It’s, uh… It’s not just Xander who’s going to miss you, you know.”

 

“Jeff.” Annie scoots a little closer, until her toes press into his leg. He can feel her staring at him, but he keeps his gaze pointed down. Her toenails are a pretty lilac color and he smiles a little to himself, thinking that no matter how many dark sensible pantsuits she may own now, she’s still his Annie. She nudges him with her foot and he finally looks up. “I’m going to miss you, too,” she says, her eyes big and blue and full of something that makes his heart race.

 

“Yeah?” he asks, embarrassed by how breathy he sounds. He covers it with a smirk. “Well, who wouldn’t?”

 

She rolls her eyes, like he knew she would, but she grins. “Just when I think you’re this new and improved Jeff Winger…”

 

“You can’t improve on perfection,” he says, laughing when she groans and half-heartedly kicks him. 

 

She considers him. “You have changed, though. And it’s not just around Xander. Don’t think I haven’t noticed you haven’t touched a drop of alcohol since I’ve been here.”

 

He leans back, closing his eyes. Of course it was too much to hope that she wouldn’t see or mention it. “Is that why you poured me a glass of wine? To make sure your theory was right?”

 

Annie shrugs, more casual than defensive. “And so after I finished my own,” she says, doing just that, “I could drink it.” He gives a bemused shake of his head and switches her empty glass with the full one. 

 

She doesn’t say any more and Jeff finally caves. “It’s not a big deal.”

 

“Then why didn’t you just tell me you weren’t drinking when I handed you the glass?”

 

“Annie,” he sighs, but she stares him down. “I had a minor scare a few months before Xander was born, after some routine bloodwork. My liver enzymes were too high and my doctor gave me a very scary list of what could cause it. After some more tests, she said it was probably liver damage, from drinking and too much protein.” He shakes his head. “It’s kind of stupid—even after I made a living defending and looking down on drunken idiots, even after Frankie called me a ‘functional alcoholic’, even though I know what it’s like to have a dad who comes home drunk—that it had to go as far as it did before I would even consider stopping.”

 

“Jeff, you’re talking to a girl who had to run through a window before she got help with her addiction. The last straw comes in different ways to everyone.” She nudges him. “I’m proud of you. Are you… are you going to meetings or anything?”

 

He shakes his head. “Just working with my therapist. It’s hard enough for me to talk to her about it. Sitting in a room full of strangers and talking about my darkest fears... ? Not really my thing.” He looks up at her. “Are you? I mean, have you been to NA in Indy?”

 

“I thought about it,” Annie says and Jeff wonders for a tense moment if she’s been tempted to relapse, and lets out the breath he’s holding when she continues, “but I still talk to my sponsor here and that’s enough.”

 

He nods with a short laugh. “What a pair we are, right?”

 

“I don’t know,” she says slowly, peering up at him, smile a little bashful. “I’ve always thought the reason we make such a good team is because of our similarities just as much as our differences.”

 

“Like a perfect duet,” he adds, with a quirk of his brow.

 

She hums, a wicked gleam flashing through her eyes. “Or great sex. That’s what you were going to say that day, weren’t you?”

 

“Busted.” He chuckles at her self-satisfied smirk, but it turns wistful as he stares down at her. “We never did get to test that theory.”

 

Annie’s mouth drops open the slightest bit and her eyes darken. “Jeff,” she breathes.

 

“All those years,” he says, leaning towards her, brushing her hair back, gut clenching as her lashes flutter and her cheeks flush. “It’s kind of unbelievable that it never happened.”

 

“It’s all your fault.” She shushes him when he starts to protest. “It is! If you’d asked, I’d have set up camp in your bed.”

 

He groans, resting his forehead against hers. “Don’t tell me that. I mean, I’m pretty sure I knew that was true, but having you confirm it…?” He shakes his head. “I’ve tried to deny myself a lot of things in my life: trans-fats, carbs, suits that cost more than three months’ rent. But the hardest was always you.”

 

Her hand finds his jaw and he can feel her breath against his lips. Pulling back, he meets her eyes and sees the same turmoil that’s roiling within him. Can they do this now, knowing it can’t really go anywhere? That she’s leaving soon? But can they really deny themselves this?  _ Again _ ?

 

His phone buzzes in his pocket and the moment shatters.

 

Jeff leans back with a shaky sigh and fishes his phone out of his pocket. “It’s Frankie. She’ll be back on campus by the end of the week.”

 

Annie frowns as she moves back to her corner of the couch. “Oh.”

 

“You’ll stay, though, right? Through next week?” he asks, wincing at the desperation in his voice.

 

“Of course,” she says and bites her lip. “I can… Can I still keep Xander with me while I’m here?”

 

“Of course,” he echoes. “I’ll let Frankie know.”

 

She nods and takes a deep drink of her wine. “Was she mad? You know, that you were asking me to come? She didn’t seem like it in the email she sent, but she’s pretty reserved in general.”

 

“I don’t think so.” Jeff tries to remember, but it was a fairly innocuous conversation. “Why would she be mad?”

 

“It was her idea that I apply for internships outside of Colorado that summer. I didn’t realize it at first, but I think she wanted to get me out of Greendale, to help me live up to my potential or whatever. She told me once she thought we—she and I—were similar, so maybe she wanted me to have the life she couldn’t.” Annie shrugs.

 

His mind spins. “She never told me that. But yeah. That makes sense. She saw what all of us knew, deep down, but were too selfish to say: we were holding you back.”

 

“What? No! That’s not true, Jeff.” She sits up, setting her wine on the coffee table. 

 

“Yes, it is. Come on, Annie, how many opportunities did you have to move on from Greendale? And how many of them did you give up to stay with us?”

 

She huffs. “I wanted to stay with you.”

 

“Or,” he reasons, “you thought we needed you, and you felt obligated to stay and take care of us.” Annie closes her eyes and Jeff’s heart breaks when he sees her lips tremble. “Annie…” 

 

One lone tear rolls down her cheek. “I needed you guys, too, you know. You were right before—we  _ were  _ a family.” She looks up at him, moisture pooling on her bottom lashes. “Is this why you never visited? Not even that summer I was in DC? Because you thought you were, what, holding me back? That’s bullshit, Jeff.”

 

He bobs his head. “Probably. It made sense at the time.” His agreement takes some of the steam out of her, and she dashes any remaining tears away with two quick flicks of her hand. “I’m sorry, for what it’s worth now. But I think I was also trying to protect myself, after…”

 

“After…?” Annie tilts her head with a small shake and a furrow of her brow. “What?”

 

“In the study room,” he says, looking anywhere but at her. “After I said… what I said. I don’t know, I kind of felt like we were on two different pages. I was giving myself some time to make sure I was okay with that.”

 

“Two different…? Jeff, what are you talking about? You told me you let me go, even though your heart-slash-penis wanted me.”

 

“Yeah, and at the time, I thought you didn’t feel the same anymore. Was I wrong?”

 

She stares at him for a long moment and then heaves a sigh. “Is this why you wouldn’t talk to me when I came back before I moved to Indianapolis?” He nods. “Do you know what I wanted to tell you that night? That my job with the FBI didn’t mean that other… variables were off the table; it just meant they might be delayed or long-distance or something. But you avoided me all night and I thought you were telling me you’d already moved on, so I gave up.”

 

Jeff begins to feel a pressure between his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose. “So let me get this straight: I was avoiding you because I thought you didn’t feel the same way, and because of that, you thought I had changed my mind and didn’t want to be with you?” 

 

“Sure seems that way,” she says with a strained laugh. “Then we both moved on.” But her wide blue eyes don’t look convinced and something light—hope maybe?—explodes in his chest.

 

“Yeah, I guess we did,” he says, not even meaning it a little. Annie smiles and Jeff knows he’s not letting go of her without a fight. Not this time.

 

* * *

 

 

Annie’s not sure where she and Jeff left things the other night. They almost kissed and then didn’t, and followed that with a weighty conversation about their past without any mention of the future. Neither of them approaches the topic again, but it seems like they’re both standing on the precipice of Something More, waiting for the other to move. 

 

It’s exhausting and exhilarating, frustrating and filled with possibility, and so characteristic of her history with Jeff that it makes her laugh.

 

Each morning, she and Jeff linger outside his office, almost but not quite touching, standing too close and sharing quiet conversation. At night, they work in concert to put dinner on the table, entertain Xander, and get him ready for bed. Once he’s tucked in, she and Jeff talk or argue over reality cable shows or just co-exist in silent harmony, and she thinks,  _ This could be my life. I could be happy with this. _

 

Of course, she needs her work. And sex. Sex is something she would also like to add to this hypothetical life of domestic bliss. But if she’s serious about the possibility of Jeff, of obtaining this life, she needs to be  _ here _ . And for that, she needs work.

 

Jeff is hunched over his prep material for finals and Annie shoots a glance at him out of the corner of her eye before she brings up a job search engine on her laptop. It can’t hurt to make sure there are local opportunities before she polishes up her résumé. As she scrolls through the results, she’s pleasantly surprised. She thought she’d have to request a transfer to Denver, which is a little too far, if she’s being honest; but the site shows a plethora of jobs she’s qualified for, especially now that she’s had some experience, and federally at that.

 

Satisfied, she pulls up her résumé, updates and proofreads it, but when she clicks on the first ad to apply, a pit of doubt in her stomach stops her at the last minute. What if this isn’t what Jeff wants? What if she’s being too hasty and it spooks him and she ends up waiting another six years for any development? What if…?

 

She shakes the thoughts out of her head. She’s not doing this just for Jeff. She wants to be here, with her friends, in a community where she can make a difference, where she knows the people. If she and Jeff never happen, moving back will still be worth it; she feels that in her gut. She’ll be here to see Xander grow up, to mediate arguments between Jeff and Britta so they don’t drift apart again. She’ll be here, where it feels like home and not just another city she lives in.

 

As she still hesitates over the link, she decides it can’t hurt to sleep on it.

 

Jeff’s phone vibrates and he looks at it with a grunt of broken concentration. “Frankie’s back.”

 

Annie takes it as a sign. Maybe she needs a second opinion, from the one person who helped her work up the courage to leave. And if Annie can convince Frankie that she should move back, well, obviously there’s no reason not to do it. Right?

 

In the morning, she repeats this argument like a mantra as she walks to Frankie’s office after leaving Jeff at his. Xander bounces on her hip, laughing as students call out greetings to him, and as soon as Annie walks through the doorway, he squirms in delight at the sight of Frankie, until Annie puts him down. He wobbles further into the room and Frankie kneels on the floor.

 

“Hello, Alexander! Have you been good while I’ve been away?” she asks in her calming, placid voice, and nods solemnly while he talks in his toddler speak with all the excitement he can muster. “Well, it sounds like you had a very good time, indeed.” She gives him a hug and looks up. “Annie.”

 

“Frankie,” Annie says through a grin. She can’t help it—Xander’s joy is contagious. “Are things okay? Jeff never did tell me what happened.”

 

Frankie stands, leading Xander over to her bag and fishing out a soft fabric book that she hands him. Xander gives an impressed  _ Ooh! _ and sits down right there to look at it.

 

“I didn’t tell him,” Frankie says, taking a seat and waving Annie to the chair across from her. “It was family business, but I’ve resolved it and it’s fine.”

 

Annie’s cheerfulness falters a touch. “Oh, okay. That’s good, then, I guess.” Looking at Xander, she attempts to flatten a wild tuft of his blond hair, smiling when he grins up at her. She feels Frankie’s gaze on her, calculating, but when Annie turns back, all she sees is guarded interest. “Xander missed you while you were gone.”

 

Frankie softens at that. “I missed him, too. It’s strange. I’ve never felt any urges to have children myself—maybe because I’ve spent my whole life taking care of other people—but I think I’ve settled into the role of Aunt Frankie nicely.” Her eyes sharpen. “You look quite maternal, though.”

 

Although her first instinct is to be defensive, Annie resists. If she wants it, she has to own it. “I am. I love him so much,” she says, her heart in her throat. It’s a scary thing to admit, loving someone, no matter who it is. 

 

But it’s worth it when Xander, maybe sensing her surge of emotions, climbs to his feet and says, “Up, Annie!”, settles in her lap when she lifts him, leaning against her torso, and turns back to petting the pages of his book.

 

“Looks like it’s mutual.”

 

Annie bites back a grin. “We’ve gotten very close,” she says proudly. “That’s actually… I’m thinking about moving back.”

 

Frankie sighs. “Annie, is this because of Jeff? Oh, my God, what  _ is  _ it about this guy’s pheromones that one whiff makes you behave against your own best interest?”   
  


Stung, Annie gapes at her, before she snaps her jaw shut with a resolute click. “No! It’s not about Jeff.”  _ If you want it, own it _ . “Okay, it’s not  _ all _ about Jeff. It’s about Xander and Britta, and it’s about  _ me! _ ”

 

That gives Frankie pause and she considers Annie, crossing her arms. “I’m listening.”

 

So Annie lays it all out for her, from the day she announced her internship to the night before she left for Indy to now. She tells her about the dissatisfaction with her job, her desire to find a place where she’s invested, and the nebulous, potentially amazing relationship with Jeff. “So,” she says once she’s done, with more than a few nerves, “what do you think?”

 

“It sounds like you’ve already made up your mind,” Frankie answers at length, but she loosens up enough to drop her arms. “Annie, I can’t tell you what the right thing to do is. If you want to move back, move back. But I will caution you: make sure it’s for the right reasons. Don’t act because you think Jeff or Britta or anyone here needs your help. Don’t…” She falters for a moment, and it’s the most vulnerable Annie has ever seen her. “Don’t sacrifice your life to clean up other people’s messes.” She waves off Annie’s murmur of concern. “It’s fine.”

 

“It’s obviously not fine. Frankie, I hope you know that none of us wants you to feel like you can’t vent to us. Friendship should go two ways, and you’ve spent six years letting us unburden ourselves and solving our problems. Let me help you for a change, even if it’s just listening.”

 

Frankie firms her jaw with a shake of her head. “No, it wouldn’t be professional.”

 

“Luckily, I’m not employed here and I’m not a student,” Annie points out. “But this is your workplace, and I respect that.”

 

“Thank you.”

  
“So we’ll just meet for dinner tonight and you can tell me about it. I’ll text you the details. See you later!” And with a cheery smile, Annie scoops Xander up and leaves Frankie stammering in her wake.


	5. Chapter 5

It frustrates Jeff to no end that Annie won’t divulge the super-secret details she learns about Frankie’s life during their dinner. The only answer she’ll give him comes when he begs, “At least tell me who won the betting pool? Was it me?”

 

She shakes her head. “No one,” she says with a tickled smile, and Jeff’s head spins as he tries to figure out what that means.

 

Annie meets Frankie for brunch on Saturday and she comes home glowing a little, giving him a warm hug and dropping to her knees to kiss Xander’s head.

 

“Did someone get into the mimosas?” Jeff teases, dropping onto the couch with his feet on the coffee table, but she just shakes her head and goes to change out of her skirt and blouse. “I have secrets, too, you know!” he calls, wincing when Xander shushes him, something new he picked up this week when Annie took him to the library. “Sorry, buddy, you’re right. Inside voice.”

 

Annie walks back out in her thin, around-the-house t-shirt and a pair of tiny black shorts, and Jeff nearly swallows his tongue. She props her hands on her hips and gives him a severe look down the length of her nose. He wonders what it says about him if that look gives him a sick thrill. “What’s this about a secret?”

 

“No way. If you aren’t telling me your secrets, I’m not telling you mine,” he says with a smug grin, stacking his hands behind his head.

 

She raises a brow and sits on the arm of the couch, threading her fingers through his hair, her eyelids going heavy. “Jeff,” she purrs, leaning over him, “what secret?”

 

He tries to remain strong, but he looks straight down her shirt for a few heart-stopping seconds, before snapping his eyes up. She can’t quite mask the flash of triumph on her face, though, so he decides to give as good as he gets. Leaning forward, letting his breath ghost along the curve of her jaw, he tries not to crow when she shivers. A flush is working its way up her neck and he aches to trace its progress with his hand, his tongue, anything, but he forces himself to focus. “Annie, are you trying to seduce me?”

 

She pulls back a little and he worries he went too far, until she bites her lip and rests her free hand on his chest, her back arching. “Are you trying to counter-seduce me?”

 

With one tug, he pulls her down to straddle his lap, resting his hands low against her back. “Maybe I’m just—"

 

“Da-da! Annie!” 

 

The horror that crosses Annie’s face in that moment sends him into fits of laughter. She scrambles off his lap and goes over to where Xander plays with the stuffed dog she bought him, beet red from neckline to hairline.

 

When Jeff continues laughing, she sends him a poisonous look. “Shu— Shhhhh, Jeff!”

 

Of course, Xander is delighted Annie’s using his new favorite sound and joins in. “Shhhh, da-da! Shhhh!”

 

Jeff finally contains himself and watches as Annie reads Xander’s new book to him, pausing on each page to point out all the different shapes and animals and tell him the names, encouraging him when he tries to make the same word sounds as her. He wonders how she can make him go from being turned on to moved in just a few moments, but she’s always affected him that way.

 

He’s not sure where he and Annie stand right now. There’s a loud ticking clock in the back of his head, counting down the hours until she leaves, and he doesn’t know what he can say to stop her. He resolved to fight for her, but when it comes down to brass tacks, he’s still terrified. Which is ridiculous, because what’s his fear? That she’ll leave. And what’s she going to do if he doesn’t act? Leave. A self-fulfilling prophecy. 

 

But, he reasons, it’s somehow worse to put himself out there, to lay it all on the line, and have her still walk away. 

 

No, he has to tell her, to show her, that he wants her in his life.  _ But wouldn’t it be karmic justice _ , some dark sinister part of him whispers _ , if she left you and you never heard from her again, just like you once did to someone else because you couldn’t handle being a stepparent. _

 

It’s a valid concern, but he waves it away. Annie is better than him, has always been better than him. And she loves Xander—even if nothing else ever happened between Jeff and her, Annie will always be there for Xander, and Jeff knows that.

 

He has a few days before Troy and Abed will be in town. They’re going to surprise her on Thursday night, and on Friday, Jeff’s planned a little party for her. And yes, he may have an ulterior motive of showing her how in Greendale she already has a built-in family—something she’s obviously been looking for. So if Jeff is going to…  _ declare _ himself, he thinks with a roll of his eyes, Friday night is probably the best bet. 

 

And if he doesn’t do it then, well, he thinks Abed would approve of an airport terminal confession of love.

 

It won’t come to that, he resolves with a nod. And it’s not  _ just _ because he’d have to buy his own ticket to get through security and he can’t afford that. 

 

He climbs to his feet. He promised Abed they’d have pancake mix in the house and he needs to sneak it in or she’ll be suspicious. “I’m going to run to the store. Do you want or need anything? Maybe something special? It is your last week.”

 

Instead of dimming her smile, though, it takes on that same serene glow as earlier, and Jeff frowns as all his doubts start creeping back up. Is she really that relieved to go back to Indiana? To be out of his life?

 

“Jeff,” she says, staring at him in concern. “Are you okay? You started glowering across the room.”

 

He shakes his head. “I’m fine. So… Any requests?”

 

* * *

 

 

Jeff is tense and quiet when she and Xander meet him Thursday after school. “What’s up?” she asks as he climbs into the passenger seat without even once fighting with her over who gets to drive. 

 

He gives her a tight smile. “Nothing. Did you, uh, happen to run into anyone interesting today?”

 

She considers it, but no one comes to mind. “No. But that’s a strangely specific question. Why? Did someone say they saw me somewhere?”

 

He slumps into his seat, scowling out the window. “No. Never mind.”

 

Annie sends him a concerned glance and lets him brood. She wonders if it has to do with the fact that, as far as he knows, she’s leaving on Saturday. She’s a little miffed he hasn’t tried once to talk her out of it, or given her a reason to come back, and she’s glad she’s learned to be proactive when it came to him. 

 

Her résumé immediately drew the attention of a few different law-enforcement agencies within reasonable driving distance from Greendale, and she worked with Frankie to coordinate Xander’s care while she interviewed. Ultimately it was the Greendale County Forensic Lab that extended the best offer and, with or without Jeff, she is coming back home. She’d already sent off her letter of resignation to her boss at the FBI, and she’s going back to clean up any outstanding cases and turn over her open investigations to other technicians.

 

But within a month, Annie will be back, and it feels right.

 

Jeff jerks upright when she pulls into his driveway and then she sees him make a deliberate effort to slump back over. Looking past him, she sees what he must have: there’s a light on in the house. A light she definitely did  _ not _ leave on when she left twenty minutes ago. 

 

A chill goes down her spine, but she asks Jeff casually, “Expecting company?”

 

He looks panicked for a minute before something—glee? no, it couldn’t have been—flickers across his face, but it’s replaced by concern. “No. Were you?”

 

“No.” Instinct takes over as she pulls his keys from the ignition and situates them between her fingers for maximum damage. “Stay here with Xander.”

 

She hears Jeff say, “Wait! Annie, no!” but she’s already loping across the yard. A car door slams behind her and Xander laughs as Jeff fights with the carseat, and Annie wishes she could tell them to keep quiet, but her back is against the front door and any noise would take away her advantage.

 

The knob is unlocked and now she’s on high alert, because it doesn’t appear to be broken at all, so someone found Jeff’s hidden key from the side of the house and did it in less time than it took her to get across town to pick Jeff up.

 

Silently, she turns the knob in her hand, keeping her eyes trained on the crack as the door opens, and she clearly hears voices coming from the living room. Throwing the door open, she storms in with a, “Freeze! FBI!” although she’s not  _ really _ allowed to make arrests, but these punks don’t need to know that.

 

And it is punks plural, because there are two different pitches—high though they are—of screams as she charges around the corner, and then she’s screaming too, dropping the keys.

 

“Abed! Troy! What are you guys doing here?”

 

Troy still looks shaken, but Abed composes himself quickly. “Surprise,” he says in a thready voice.

 

Jeff strolls in, Xander clutched to his chest. “I tried to stop you,” he says when he finds Annie gaping at their guests, then glares at Abed and Troy. “You’re late. I kept waiting to hear from you and you never answered my text.”

 

Troy gains his composure and gives a weak smile. “We thought it’d be fun to surprise you, too. Lesson learned. It was not.”

 

Annie gasps. “Jeff! You knew they were coming? You told me you weren’t expecting anyone!”

 

He shrugs. “I thought it would be funny if you took them down. Lesson learned. It was.” He grins when she swats at him.

 

“Oh, you guys!” Annie turns and throws herself at Troy and Abed, hugging them together for a long moment before she pulls back, rubbing the tears out of her eyes. Turning to Troy, she touches a finger to his beard and smiles. “I like it. It makes you look very mature.” Then she throws her arms around him again for a hard squeeze. 

 

She looks at Abed, who hasn’t changed at all, and gives him his own hug, telling him as much. He pats her back and pulls up too soon, his eyes probing as he looks her over. “You’ve changed. There’s something different about you.” He glances behind her, where she assumes Jeff and Xander still stand, then nods, like it all makes sense.

 

She beams at them. “Are you guys staying for dinner? I can make you anything. Just name it.”

 

They share a glance and then, as one, say, “Pancakes.”

 

Jeff helps her keep a constant flow of hot pancakes from griddle to table, and Troy and Abed eat them as fast as she can make them. Xander picks at one of his own and his hands and face are a sticky mess that’s going to take forever to clean up. She’s grateful Jeff had the foresight to strip him down to his diaper first, or they’d be throwing out his clothes.

 

Xander finds Troy and Abed endlessly amusing, laughing at every little thing they do or say.

 

Troy says, “I love this guy! Maybe Abed and I should have babies, too, so we always have a willing audience.”

 

Jeff and Annie trip over each other to explain all the ways that is not a good idea, and even Abed pitches in with, “Although I see the mass commercial appeal of two bachelors trying to raise babies and still maintain their free-wheeling lifestyle, I think that type of material leans too heavily on emotional manipulation. And it can be cheesy if done wrong. We can just borrow Jeff’s baby when we want to test new material.”

 

“Abed, I really don’t think—" Annie starts, but stops cold when Abed turns his dark soothsayer eyes on her, and she knows if she finishes that sentence, he’s going to call her out in front of Troy and Jeff on the fact that she believes she has any say in what happens to Xander.

 

She narrows her eyes at him and inclines her head to acknowledge his victory, but scores her own point with, “This last batch is for me and Jeff, so I hope you’ve had your fill,” and flips the last few pancakes onto two separate plates, nudging one towards Jeff while she carefully butters her own.

 

Abed tilts his head with a slight nod, conceding this to her, and she smiles in triumph.

 

* * *

 

 

Jeff has many regrets in his life, but inviting all these people into his home on his last night with Annie ranks up among the top. 

 

Troy and Abed slept over last night, claiming they were too full of pancakes to even walk out the door, but Jeff thinks it’s more likely they forgot to make any other arrangements. 

 

By the time Jeff gets home after his last class, the house is a disaster and Annie is barely keeping it together. And that was before she even knew anyone was coming over.

 

When Jeff breaks the news and sends her off to get ready, she takes a moment to bark orders at Troy and Abed, who immediately snap into action, clearing up their dishes and dirty clothes. It’s scary and impressive, and Jeff only spends one fleeting second fantasizing about Annie ordering him around, before he, too, starts to whip the house into shape. 

 

By the time Annie walks back out in a green sundress with big yellow flowers printed on it, even she looks mildly impressed by the progress they’ve made.

 

Chang and Craig are obnoxiously early, but they also arrive together, inspiring a chain reaction of raised eyebrows between Jeff, Annie, Troy, and Abed.

 

Frankie arrives exactly at 7:30, punctual as always, and immediately commandeers Xander, stopping Troy’s protests with a single look.

 

Britta and Duncan arrive late, although they did  _ not  _ come together, a point that Britta makes loud and clear as soon as they walk in. Then she cries, “Troy and Abed!” right in Jeff’s ear and runs into the other room to hug the boys.

 

The night goes downhill from there. Oh, his initial tactic—to remind Annie of her Greendale family—seems to be a success. But it’s a little too successful, he thinks darkly, as he can’t seem to get a moment alone with her.

 

He gets caught in the crossfire of a pissing match between Chang and Duncan that almost turns literal before he puts a stop to it. He sees Annie deep in discussion with Frankie and Abed about something across the room, but by the time he makes it over, she’s gone. 

 

He’s roped into a conversation about Division I baseball with Troy when he spots her again, leaning over Britta’s shoulder as they FaceTime with Shirley. 

 

He steps away, telling Troy he’ll grab him a beer, and if Annie just so happens to be on the way, so be it. Only she’s not there, and Britta thrusts the phone at Jeff and he spends twenty minutes catching up with Shirley.

 

Once he hands off the phone and the beer, he gives up and steps outside. Of course, that’s where he finds her, sitting on the back stoop, staring out into his meager backyard. With a sigh of relief, he drops down next to her, pulling her into his side as she shivers a little in the cool night breeze.

 

“Having fun?” he asks, voice teasing.

 

She laughs and gives him a half-hearted jab with her elbow. “I am, but…”

 

“They’re a lot, huh?” He laughs when she reluctantly nods. “The good part is we’re only all together like this for special occasions now.”

 

Annie hums, wrapping her arms around herself. “It’s been so long since I’ve been here, I forgot how overwhelming it is.” She leans her head on his shoulder and he feels her smile. “It’s nice, though, too. Much better than the alternative.”

 

They sit in tranquil silence for a bit before he finds himself saying, “I think I want to put a swingset back here. You know, when Xander gets older. I always wanted my own swingset—my dad promised me one, before he left. But then I think there’s not enough room and it might be a hassle with the landlord. I don’t know, I just want Xander to have everything I didn’t.”

 

She looks up at him, blue eyes dancing in the moonlight. “Maybe you could find somewhere else with a bigger yard. Maybe you should buy a house.”

 

“Sure.” Jeff scoffs. “Let me just go out and get a mortgage on my measly teacher’s salary. It’s a nice dream, but I don’t see that happening.”

 

“But maybe,” she insists. “Someday.”

 

He shakes his head, clearly missing something important. “Yeah, maybe,” he agrees without conviction, but it settles her down and she eases back into his side. “Maybe then I could get Xander a dog—one  _ not _ named after Chang.” She laughs, but he warms to the topic. “A garage. A kitchen with enough room to fit a dishwasher. And get Xander his own room, plus have a guest room.”

 

“Or maybe have more kids,” she says. Jeff freezes and tries to figure out what she means, why she’s saying this. But she leans her head back and asks, “Do you want more kids?”

 

He clears his throat and tries to swallow, but his mouth is strangely dry. “I always imagined having at least two. I hated being an only child. But I’m, you know…” He blows out a breath and braces himself. “Almost fifty. That’s a door I’m not sure I want to keep open much longer. I want to live to see my kids grow up.”

 

She stays quiet for a moment, then says in a hesitant voice, “I always thought three was a nice number.”

 

His wraps his arm around her tighter and rasps out, “Yeah.” Licking his lips, he’s just about to ask, to put it all on the line, when the back door snaps open and Duncan nearly trips over them.

 

“Found them, everyone! They’re canoodling in the backyard,” he announces to the entire house, grinning as Jeff scowls. “Well, I can’t say I’m surprised, Jeff. You do move fast. Or rather, very slowly, in this case.”

 

Annie flushes and climbs to her feet, rushing back into the house and Jeff wants to cry and scream and—and punch someone. He settles for glowering at Duncan, who cowers and runs back inside as well.

 

Jeff sighs, loud and long, into the night air, but then he grins. If he read her right, he thinks this night might just play out the way he’s been hoping.

 

All he has to do is tell her how he feels, as soon as he has her alone. Piece of cake.

 

He presses a hand to his temple and reluctantly goes back inside.

 

* * *

 

 

Annie avoids everyone’s curious gazes when she walks back in and drops into a chair beside Abed, the only person who doesn’t seem to be scrutinizing her.

 

“Tell me about the series you’re working on,” she says, and he takes the bait, describing the plot in intricate detail. It actually sounds interesting and soon Annie is asking questions, and Troy jumps in with stories about one of the actors, an old B-list star who was convinced he could still party with his younger co-stars.

 

She sees Jeff walk in from the corner of her eye, and he looks a little drawn, but she doesn’t divert her attention away from Troy and Abed. She hopes Jeff understood what she was leading up to earlier. She’d been so close to telling him about her new job here in Greendale, to finding out what that could mean for them, and then Duncan had walked out and ruined it.

 

The original plan was to tell Jeff tonight. Once she found out about the party, she made an amendment to include making an announcement after she tells Jeff, so no one would feel left out. But the way things have been going, she’s doesn’t think she’ll get another opportunity to have him to herself before everyone leaves. She’ll just have to wait for the right moment to present itself.

 

Troy and Abed’s stories suck her back in and she’s laughing as Xander walks up to her, rubbing at his eye. “Up,” he whines, and she lifts him into her lap, wrapping her arms around him and rocking side to side in her chair. It’s past his bedtime and he was too busy playing with Abed and Troy this afternoon to nap, so it’s no surprise that he’s tired.

 

She’s telling the guys about a kidnapping case she’d worked on, certain that Xander has drifted off by now, when she hears him say her name. “Hang on, baby,” she says, and goes back to her conversation.

 

“Annie!” he says a little louder, and she pulls back to see that familiar stubborn cast on his face, but she and Jeff have been working with him on this.

 

“Xander, you have to wait your turn,” she tells him in her sternest voice—or at least, the sternest one she can use on him without feeling like a monster. She makes a point to look back at Troy and Abed and continue as though nothing happened.

 

Xander gasps in outrage and Annie sincerely hopes Jeff isn’t close enough to hear it. He gives her enough grief when Xander whips out the Disney eyes; he doesn’t need to know that his son is picking up Annie’s other habits, too.

 

“ _ Mama! _ ” Xander cries and Annie’s heart stops in her chest as the house goes quiet. She can feel everyone looking at her and the next thing she knows, she’s on her feet. Humiliation surges through her and with it comes guilt, like she’s been caught playing some game she’s not supposed to even know about. Like she’s been pulled too far into her fantasies—again—and now she has to explain to Jeff how it got to this point.

 

“Whoa, Winger, is there something you guys want to tell us?” a distant voice says with a laugh.

 

“Shut up, Chang. Annie,” Jeff says, voice dropping lower as he walks up to her, “I—"

 

She hands him Xander and spins on her heel, careful not to lock eyes with anyone as she escapes to the guest room, closing the door firmly behind her.

 

* * *

 

 

“Annie.” Jeff knocks on the door, smiling a little when Xander slaps his palm against it, too. “Let us in.”

 

The party is subdued behind him, and Jeff doesn’t know why they’re all still here, but he has more important things to deal with. Like making sure that Annie knows how he feels, that he’s actually overjoyed that Xander thinks of her that way, because it fits in perfectly with all these plans he’s been vaguely making.

 

He tries to ignore the voice that says,  _ This is it. This is when she cuts and runs, and you never see her again. Did you really think that if she had the choice, she would pick  _ you _? _ But his heart is racing and his palms are sweaty, and it’s starting to feel more and more like a panic attack.

 

“Annie,” he calls again, and she must finally hear the desperation in his voice, because the door opens. Jeff pushes through, closing it behind him again and setting Xander down. His son immediately goes to Annie and he watches as her tear-streaked face softens and she hauls Xander in for a hug. 

 

“I didn’t teach him that,” she says in a raw voice, staring intently down at the top of Xander’s head. “I would never—not without—"

 

The light goes on and Jeff breathes a little easier. “I didn’t think you did. He just—he picks up things so easily, I’m sure he must’ve overheard it—"

 

“Everywhere we go,” she says with a wet laugh. “That old lady at Target the one time, at the park, last week at the library. Everyone assumes he’s my son, which I guess I can’t really blame them, 30-something woman with a little boy.”

 

Jeff knows it’s more than that—it’s the way she looks at Xander, takes care of him, pays attention to him. All their interactions scream “mother and son” but he’s too chicken to say that out loud.

 

Instead he says, “I’m sorry, if he, you know, put you on the spot or embarrassed you.”

 

“No!” She looks at him now, eyes wide and beseeching. “Jeff, if anything, I’m overwhelmed. I’ve loved being here with you guys, helping out. I’m so flattered that he’d think of me that way. No matter what else happens, I always want to be there for Xander, in whatever capacity you’ll let me.”

 

He manages a nervous laugh. “Funny that you’d say that…” With a deep breath, he locks eyes with her. “Annie, I know you’ve got your own life back in Indy and the last thing you probably want to take on is a middle-aged single dad and his toddler. But having you here… I didn’t realize what Xander and I were missing in our lives, until you came in and showed us.”

 

“Jeff…”

 

“No, wait,” he says with a shake of his head. “I didn’t mean it to sound like I only see you as a mother for Xander. Because it wasn’t just a generic maternal figure we missed, it was you. Specifically. We were both missing you in our lives. Granted, me a little more than him, because I knew what it was like to have you in my life to begin with, but it’s not a competition.

 

“To be honest, I didn’t really think this would ever be an option, no matter how much I wanted it to be. The last week or so, though, makes me think..” He swallows hard and presses through the nerves. “Makes me think you might want this, too. But I can’t assume that, so I have to ask, what do you want, Annie? And don’t answer right away. Think about it, and think about this, because it took me way too long to admit it to myself, let alone say it out loud.” He tucks his chin to his chest and takes a bracing breath, releasing it as he looks up and locks eyes with her. 

 

“I want a partner, someone to be by my side while I do this terrifying thing called parenting. I want someone to build a family with, someone I can commiserate with, argue with, celebrate with. 

 

“I want to come home, every day, to see the two people I love most in this world—and yes, you’re one of them. You have been for so long, it’s almost stupid at this point.” He glances at Xander, who has fallen asleep on her shoulder, then back to her. “We’ll survive if you don’t want that. Both of us. So don’t decide this is what you want, just because you think we need you. I mean this in the nicest way possible, but we don’t. 

 

“We  _ want  _ you, though. I want you, Annie. I love you, and have loved you a long time, and I’ve realized over the past few weeks, I’ll probably love you the rest of my life. But I don’t want to be your obligation, and I don’t want my son to be either. I want us to be your choice.”

 

Her eyes are glassy with tears and she looks away, turning her face towards Xander. “You love me?”

 

Okay, not really the reply he was expecting, but he nods. “Yes.”

 

“For a long time?” He repeats his answer. “How long?”

 

Something has changed in her tone and he’s instantly wary. “I’m not sure how long I felt it, but I’ve known for sure since Borchert’s lab.”

 

Her head snaps up. “Borchert’s… Jeff, that was  _ seven years ago _ !” It’s impressive how intimidating she can make a whisper sound. “You didn’t think it was worth a mention in the past  _ seven years _ that you were in love with me?”

 

“Annie, I don’t…” He shakes his head. “I told you. Before DC. Or I pretty much did.”

 

She scoffs. “Jeff, the closest you came was saying that the heart wants what it wants. And yeah, I had an idea what you were saying, but I wasn’t about to read between the lines. Or need I remind you of the ‘Annie of it all’ debacle our second year?”

 

He winces and admits, “Okay, not my best—"

 

“Or, or, or  _ platonic shoulder holding _ ?” She sets Xander gently on the bed and gets up to pace. “Borchert’s lab! You—you were engaged to Britta in Borchert’s lab! Again! And that’s when you realized… You are so infuriating!”

 

Somehow this has veered wildly out of Jeff’s control and he says, “Annie—" but she cuts him off with a sharp jab of her finger against his chest.

 

“Oh, no, buddy. I’ve been waiting to say all this for years and now you’re gonna listen. So sit down and shut up.” 

 

Jeff takes her place on the bed, his heart falling into his stomach. Of all the ways he imagined her rejecting him, he never thought he’d be on the receiving end of a dressing down first. Or if he did, it was much more literal interpretation of the phrase ‘dressing down’, one with consolation sex implications.

 

She spins and faces him, arms crossed tightly across her chest. “Do you know how many times I talked myself out of loving you?” Stunned, he shakes his head. “A lot. I tried to tell myself that I was just trying to be cool like Britta, or it was just a schoolgirl crush, or that I was in love with the idea of being loved. And all of those might even be true on some level, but it was never quite enough to stop me from being drawn back in, every time.

 

“When we all came back to Greendale after graduation, at first it was just a relief to have you back in my life, as my friend. In a way, it felt like starting over, and I thought it would be different. But then, you and Britta fell back together. And I know it was out of fear or whatever, but it still broke my heart.”

 

“I know,” he slips in when she pauses a second too long. “Then you told us we had to let each other want what we want, and I… knew. Me opening the doors was just—"

 

“Wait.” Her arms drop and she squints at him. “The doors…  _ that’s  _ how you opened them? By realizing…” Then, to herself, “Boy, is Abed going to be disappointed. That’s way better than his theory.” She shakes her head and looks at him again. “But you never said anything.”

 

He sighs. “I was terrified. And I think this conversation justifies that. I’d spent so long pushing you away. How could you believe that I loved you?”

 

“Jeff.”

 

“There’s also the fact that, like it or not, I’m sixteen years older than you and you had dreams and ambitions, and I had… Greendale. So I took your advice, and I let you want what you wanted, and I—" 

 

“Let me go,” she murmurs with a nod, then turns to face him head on. “I’m going back to Indianapolis tomorrow.”

 

The bottom falls out of his stomach and all his dreams come crashing down with it.

 

* * *

 

“Wait, no!” Annie says, only realizing how that sounds when Jeff collapses in on himself a little. “I’m coming back!”

 

That gets his attention. “You are?” he asks in a reedy voice, like he’s too afraid to hope.

 

She nods. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned about you, Jeff, it’s that you always put the hard stuff off until the last minute. I started making plans to stay after Frankie got back.” He stares at her, dumbfounded, and she allows herself a pleased smile. “I have to go back to Indy to finish up some things, but I start at the Greendale County Lab in a month.” When he doesn’t react, uncertainty creeps up. “That’s okay, right?”

 

“Did you—I mean, is this… for me? For us?” he asks, gesturing between the two of them. 

 

“Well, I’d like to think it’s mostly for me,” she says, then gestures to Xander. “And partly for him. And for you and him. And yes, for you and me. If that’s what you want.”

 

He reaches out and pulls her towards him until she’s draped across his lap. “It’s what I’ve wanted a long time. I just never thought it would happen.” He shakes his head in wonder. “Are you sure about this? You worked so hard to get to where you are.”

 

Twining her arms around his neck, she feathers her fingers through the hair at his nape. “I’m sure. Hey.” She waits until he meets her eyes and says, “I love you. I love you both and I want that life you described.”

 

Jeff drops his head against her neck. “You’ve always seen right through my act, to who I really am. I never thought anyone who could see that would be able to love me.”

 

It breaks her heart and she moves to cup his jaw in her palm, encouraging him to lean back so she can look him in the eye and say, “I love you, Jeff. Every part of you.”

 

He surges and catches her lips with his, and to Annie, it’s a kiss worth waiting a lifetime for. Jeff cups the back of her head, threading his fingers through her hair, and she smiles against his mouth until his lips part and then it’s all tongue, teeth clashing, the contact turning from a warm buzz to a raging inferno.

 

A moan dies in her throat as she grips Jeff’s collar in both hands, fists clenched so hard she’s trembling. Or maybe that’s Jeff’s intensity vibrating beneath her. Either way, she’s certain that at any moment, they’re each going to dissolve into particles and merge into one.

 

Something shatters in the other room and Annie pulls back with a gasp.

 

Jeff groans and she makes an apologetic noise as she rests her temple against his. “You don’t really think they’re still out there, do you?” he asks, but then a voice that is clearly Britta yelling comes through the door and he sighs.

 

Annie kisses him, chaste and quick, before she climbs off his lap. “I’ll put Xander in his crib, you get them to leave, and we’ll meet back here in 10 minutes.” He looks at her with dazed eyes and she smirks. “We’ve got a lot of time to make up for and a long month ahead of us.”

 

Of course, it can’t be that easy. Annie does move Xander to his crib without him waking, but none of their guests seem at all ready to leave. Instead, they’d rather gang up on Jeff, who looks helpless.

 

“Guys!” Annie calls, taking mercy on him, “I have news.”

 

“You’re moving back to Greendale,” Troy says in an unimpressed voice.

 

Britta shakes her head. “You’re leaving the career you worked so hard for.”

 

“You and Jeff finally resolved your will-they-won’t-they tension.” Abed nods. “It’s about time. It’s gone on way too long. You’re lucky the audience hasn’t lost interest.”

 

“And you’re pregnant!” Chang announces, then falters when everyone stares at him. “What? You guys all got to guess!”

 

Annie gapes at her friends. “Were you listening at the door?”

 

Frankie clears her throat. “Uh, I may have… let a few things slip.” She crumbles a little. “I’m sorry, Annie. They were just so concerned when you ran into the other room—"

 

“It’s okay,” Annie says as Jeff walks over to wrap his arm around her shoulders. She leans into his side and grins up at him.

 

“Are you moving in right away?” Abed asks. “Or will you get your own place?”   
  


The question surprises Annie and she jolts. “Oh, I, uh…” Jeff shrugs, like the answer doesn’t affect him at all, when she glances at him for help, and Annie flounders. “We haven’t worked out the details yet.”

 

“I could always use a roommate again!” Britta offers with a smile that’s mostly teeth. “But I get to keep the bedroom.” 

 

“Annie, I assume you have a car in Indianapolis.” Frankie moves closer. “I sincerely hope you’re not considering driving across the country alone when you come ba—"

 

“Okay, everyone,” Jeff finally cuts in, stepping forward. “A lot’s happened tonight, and Annie and I obviously have a lot to talk about, and she does have to make her flight tomorrow, so… leave.”

 

The assorted Greendale staff file out, followed by Troy and Abed making plans to stay with Britta, and soon Jeff and Annie are alone.

 

She bites her lip and looks at him from beneath her lashes. “I guess we have some decisions to make.”

 

He deflates. “Yeah.”

 

“Or…”

 

“Or?” he says, a shark sensing blood in the water, closing in on her.

 

She grabs the front of his shirt and leads him back to the guest room.

 

They’ve got an entire month to get everything figured out. 

  
They’ve waited long enough.


	6. Epilogue

**_June 2021_ **

 

Jeff slides back under the covers after his third trip to Xander’s new bedroom and pulls Annie into his side. “Don’t say it. I know.”

 

She smiles up at him. “I think it’s sweet you have separation anxiety. Was he okay?”

 

He sighs, throwing an arm over his eyes. “He was fast asleep,” he says miserably. “He doesn’t need me anymore.”

 

“Awwww.” Annie leans over to kiss his chin. “Yes, he does. But there are advantages to him sleeping in a different room now that I’m here.” She moves her lips up his jaw and touches his earlobe with the slightest hint of teeth.

 

His arm drops as he turns to her with interest. “Advantages, you say? Tell me more.”

 

**_May 2022_ **

 

“It’s not too late to back out,” he warns her and she scoffs, tapping her pen against the platinum ring on his left hand. Jeff shakes his head, drawn and nervous. “Yeah, but this is something that’s much harder to get out of.”

 

Annie sighs and presses her palm to his cheek. “Jeff, I’m not going anywhere. This is what I want. It was my idea, after all.”

 

He searches her face and his eyes soften with relief. “Okay. I love you, you know.”

 

She smiles. “I know.” Leaning forward, she signs the preliminary adoption form for one Alexander Declan Winger.

 

**_January 2023_ **

 

When Annie wakes up, she smiles at the sight before her. Jeff balances the baby in one arm while keeping the other around Xander, who stands on a chair to peer at his new brother. 

 

Xander glances over. “Mama! Baby’s here.”

 

Jeff laughs. “Yeah, I think your mom knows that better than anyone, buddy. Annie,” he says, voice roughening as he looks back down at the bundle in his arms. “He’s so perfect.”

 

Annie winces as she sits up and she holds her arms out. Jeff takes the hint and brings both boys over, gracefully handing off the newborn as Xander crawls over her legs. 

 

Her heart swells to bursting when she looks at the baby. His hair is a barely-there fluff of blond and his face is still red and wrinkled and he’s beautiful. “Hi, Sebastian,” she coos, laughing when his little rosebud mouth purses. “I think he’s hungry again.”

 

“Pizza!” Xander says, sitting upright, and grinning when Jeff ruffles his hair.

 

“Not quite, bud. You and I can go get some in a while. Do you want me to get the nurse?” he asks, turning to her as she tries to get Sebastian to breastfeed.

 

She sighs in relief when he latches and milk starts flowing, and shakes her head. “Nope, I got it this time. Xander, how was Aunt Frankie’s house?” And she listens intently as he goes through every detail of spending the night at Frankie’s while she and Jeff were at the hospital. By the time he talks himself down and curls into a ball by her feet, she’s gently rocking a fed-and-burped Sebastian and fighting to keep her eyes open.

 

Jeff reaches for the baby and grins at her. “Three still sounding like a good number?” he teases.

 

Exhausted and still a little sore, Annie winces but looking at her boys, she slowly nods. “I could do this again. Give me a year or so to forget the pain, though.”

 

Jeff’s eyes go wide before his mouth curls up in a soft smile and he raises a brow at her, Xander, and Sebastian in turn. “Girl next time? Girl next time? Girl next time?”

 

**_November 2036_ **

 

“Madam President,” Jeff says, handing his wife a flute of celebratory champagne after the kids have gone to bed, biting back a smile when she rolls her eyes.

 

Annie sighs, slumping back on their couch, and takes a sip. “How did this even happen? I didn’t want to be on the school board in the first place.”

 

“Hey, when you complained after Caroline started school that running the lab wasn’t demanding enough and you needed a challenge, I suggested another kid. It was your idea to get more involved in the school district.”

 

“Jeff! Be serious.” She swats his stomach. 

 

“I am,” he says, belying that with a laugh. “I told Abed you’d be president one day.” He grins when she snorts. “I did!”

 

She considers him through narrowed eyes. “When?”

 

He thinks back. “Uh, whenever we made that movie.” She stares at him. “The sci-fi one with Chang’s footage. Not any of the documentaries.”

 

“Before I left for DC,” she realizes and frowns a little, and Jeff’s anxiety lurches, a familiar friend.

 

“Do you regret it?” he asks, taking her free hand in his and weaving their fingers together. “Coming back here, giving up the FBI?”

 

Her face clears and she leans up to kiss him. “Not for one second. I love you.”

 

Jeff looks at her, her eyes still big and blue and her skin just barely showing her age, and sees every facet of her: the eighteen-year-old overachiever with something to prove; the girl willing to kiss him to win a debate; a shrieking fury who punched him in the face in front of all their friends; the woman who moved him to power a computer through the sheer force of his feelings for her; an intimidatingly competent forensic analyst; mother to their three amazing children; a wife and partner; the love of his life.

 

He wonders for one minute how he almost missed all of this before he remembers, Oh yeah, Young Jeff was kind of a terrified idiot. He kisses her, and after all this time, the words are second-nature, though no less important: “I love you, too.”

**Author's Note:**

> feel free to come hang out with me on [tumblr](itsactuallycorrine.tumblr.com)


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